On Expedition : Towards Bazaars of ‘Old’ Delhi

There comes another day. We all were out on a small expedition, to explore the Bazaars of ‘old’ Delhi. To begin with, the space where it started; we entered a Metro station, a sophisticated architectural space that staged us in a condition of drastic contrast between the interior and exterior of the city. When we reached Chawri Bazaar Metro station the contrast became denser, we walked out of this modern under-ground architectural space with the help of escalators and entered the ‘Choti Gallis’ (tiny streets) that are deeply crowded and awfully organized in their own way. These Gallis in a larger sense stand as memoirs of the city’s history, a spectacle of the city that has unique ambience. The streets with electricity poles that run one after the other, with wires hanging, intersecting and overlapping and specifically the orange boxes hanging to each pole add to its architectural beauty.

Passing from these Gallis our way lead to different Bazaars like Chawri Bazaar, Kinari Market and explored diverse variety of things they offer. The bazaars are interesting sites that stand as a collective, and provide things of similar type and variety. The heavily crowded Gallis, always with the voices of cycle rickshawala’s asking for the way (bhayyaji side……), made momentary interactions possible. Well all were tired and had a break for lunch with the delicious food the Dhaba offered and proceeded with exploration. This time the interest was for paper and thus proceeded to the bazaar where we get varieties of paper, finishing which, we headed to the metro station to get back.

The notion of ‘old’ city seems to be a problematic, as to, what this notion of ‘old’ is all about, as though these spaces are outside the ambit of transformations in the so called ‘new’ city. The concept of ‘old’ somehow freezes these spaces as mere memoirs of past history, thus distancing them from the ‘new’ idea of the city and its functioning. Within these contexts there is a necessity to critically look at the aspect of ‘old’ city as a construct and understand its relevance within the current day formations of the city.

This small expedition was a completely new experience for some of the participants of the residency, especially those who came from outside India, as it is a new idea of space, architecture and the city as a whole. For the others who are already familiar with these spaces, it was definitely a re-thought.