As the modern city of Delhi has grown to encompass all the cities built on the site and their remains, Shahjahanabad (1) has come come to be simply called old Delhi. The link I've given at the bottom gives a brief but interesting history of the area - check out the "historical perspective" section. It also has a map which you can follow my journey on. My journey starts at the bottom of the map near where it says "churianwali gulli", which means bangle alley.

So I took the spanking new Delhi Metro (2) from Connaught Place to chawri bazaar. I headed off down Nai Sarak or new street which was new when the British built it after destroying parts of the city 1857 uprising/mutiny during and as retribution against the citizens of the old city afterwards. My guidebook tells me that the balconies overlooking the street used to be occupied by "dancing girls" trying to entice passers by off the street. They have since been moved on, and another similar area has grown up in different parts of Delhi. Unlike now, these "dancing girls" or tavaa'ifs (3) weren't simply prostitutes but were often highly trained in singing and dancing and courtly etiquette.

But it was police rather than beautiful women who were occupying the attention of the passers by on Nai Sarak. As I walked down towards Chandni Chowk a large police presence were clearing the edges of the street of parked scooters and motorbikes and I got to see the process in three stages; first a policeman was shepherding a guy on his phone back into the stream of traffic while a little further on a full scale argument had broken out between two policemen and a scooter owner and another couple of minutes further still a distraught man, who had obviously arrived too late, was proclaiming the injustice being done to him to all who would listen - which was turning out to be quite a crowd - as his shiny new motorbike was loaded on to a rickety cycle rickshaw and cycled away.
 
The shops I passed changed from bookshops selling everything from medical textbooks to mein kampf and stationary shops to shops selling bright, glittery wedding saris in a whole spectrum of gaudy reds, fringed with tinsel as well a whole range of other wonderful looking fabrics.

Nai Sarak opens onto the massive Chandni Chowk that leads up to the front gate of the red fort and was widened for the royal processions however it retains little of it's former imperial glory (see (1)). As I progressed along Chandni Chowk peering through the windows of fancy clothes shops and perfume makers the reason for the police clear up I had witnessed came into earshot. Behind a slow moving van handing out religious calendar cards came first a group of uniformed drummers followed by a liveried brass band or two, not always taking it in turns to play. Behind them was a bullock drawn chariot/temple under the canopy of which two idols (one of which was of Hanuman (4) I later overheard) sat almost obscured by their garlands and offerings. On one side prasad (5) was being handed out while a priest at the front of the vehicle was taking plates of offerings from shopkeepers.
 
A little further on I ducked down the legendary Paraanthewali Gali (alley of fried, stuffed breads)famous for it's varieties of Paraanthas - like a fried, stuffed chapati. I wasn't very hungry but I will definitely be going back to taste! Next I came across the famous Ghantewala sweetshop (6) which was opposite a large outlet of the massive snack manufacturuer Haldirams, which was bustling and crowded with families all jostling to buy sweets from the long line of class fronted cabinets or a wide range of hot snacks from red capped counter staff. Ghantewala on the other hand was empty. I bought a small selection of their barfis but wasn't massively impressed, but I look forward to returning with a larger appetite to both places! Further on still was "old and famous Jalebiwala" which sold the most fantastic hot, sticky and crunchy jalebis (7). Of course I stopped for one! They were much chunkier than any I'd had before and deliciously warm and crisp and dripping with syrup!
 
I carried on to the red fort and turned right onto Netaji Subhash Marg by which time the character of the street had completely changes. Gone were the fancy shops, instead a temple cordoned off with barbed wire at the end of Chandni Chowk lead on to a large bus stopping area. Further on, past rows of cheap bag sellers, I passed a little row of shops selling a wide range of shrieking birds from ducks to parrots. The owners of which were somewhat over keen to persuade me to check their wares, I hurried on. I passed a small grassy arena with a picture of two semi-clad men grappling outside, advertising weekly wrestling matches.
 
One block further on I wandered into the somewhat bedraggled Netaji Subhash Park which had five or six cricket matches happening consecutively in a space about half the size of a cricket pitch, with all the confusion that might bring. Stretched out in the shade of a large tree nearby a rather corpulent man was stripped down to his underwear and was being oiled up for a massage by skinny white-bearded masseur with small audience of onlookers. I didn’t stay to watch the results; instead I carried on past street vendors with piles of semi precious stones spread out on sheets like jelly beans, each eager to tell me of the various health benefits owning one of the se stones could provide. Past my first roadside dentist, replete with rusty pliers and file and on the main strip of shops of N.S. marg to my penultimate destination - the Aap Ki Pasand teashop, which as it turns out was closed! My tea tastings will have to come later!

Then, as dusk was falling, I made my way down the Chitli kabr Bazaar towards the Jama Masjid, which loomed wonderfully at the mouth of the bazaar against the coloured sky. I made my way off the main street to Karims (8) and enjoyed a restorative meal of Mutton Burra (mutton on the bone roasted with a spice paste/marinade) and tandoori rotis followed by kheer, a thick rice pudding covered with pistachio crumbs served in a shallow conical earthenware bowl. Opposite the alley on which Karims is located is an open fronted restaurant with a small crowd of men crouched in front, waiting, as is the custom, for a rich passer by to pay for a (non veg) meal. I ended my day my giving the owner enough for several of them to be fed before finding an auto rickshaw to take me through Delhi’s darkness back to my hotel.

Related Links:
(1) Shahjahanabad
(2) Delhi metro
(3) tavaa'ifs
(4) Hanuman
(5) prasad
(6) Ghantewala sweetshop
(7) jalebis
(8) Karims