"Study Abroad" Tours in Delhi

Delhi has a lot of interesting things to experience if you are coming on an educational tour. It's a great place for understanding Indian political history; and even more interesting if you want to understand the multiple cultures and faiths that co-exist in India. And of course, there are many museums, workshops, art and music shows, and interesting cuisine experiences as well.

Here's our lovely group of 25 students from Johannesskolen Denmark. They have been touring Delhi with us for the past 4 years. We enjoy their openness to new cultures and willingness to explore. In the foreground you can see the local college students from Delhi, who took them around. The interaction with local students provides very rich opportunities for mutual understanding.

On this visit we arranged multiple experiences for them in Delhi:

- A survey of living conditions in the Ram Nagar area. Ram Nagar in Shahdara is one of the oldest residential areas of Delhi. Students did a survey of residents, with a questionnaire. We taught them basic Hindi to prepare for this : - ) The people were very welcoming of the students, inviting them for tea and being so hospitable!

- An exploration of Old Delhi using the Metro, rickshaw and walking. Students visited and volunteered at the Sikh Gurudwara, learnt about different faiths and cultures of India, saw the Metro in operation, and explored the famous traditional bazaars.

- A look at recycling industry in Delhi, and understanding the education system and daily life in a low-income neighbourhood.

Through interactions with local college students of Delhi, the Johanneskolen students gained a deeper understanding of the realities of modern Delhi. Similarly, our college students learnt about the Danish people.

We look forward to Johanneskolen's visit again next year. 

Would you like to help our students?

If you are a foreigner coming to Delhi, or a local with overseas visitors coming to Delhi, we would like your help.

We have a new batch of guides being trained for our offbeat and fun Delhi by Metro tour. This is a tour we are doing in partnership with the non-profit Manzil. The guides are from low-income families and this is an upskilling program for them to earn money while they are in college.

They are currently being formally trained to do the tour, and we want to give them some trial tours for practice. Our guides need to practice understanding foreign accents and helping foreigners getting comfortable with Delhi. They need to practice how to explain apparently simple and obvious things about our culture to a foreigner. They can only do this by actually taking foreign tourists on the tour.

If you have overseas visitors coming to Delhi in the next few months (Jul-Aug-Sep) we would love to offer them a free tour. There will be one or two trainee guides doing the tour. If you have a large group, we will also assign a fully trained guide.

As I said, there is no charge for the tour. We just want our kids to have some practice.

We will pay for the local travel expenses on the tour (Metro, autorickshaw, cyclerickshaw). The only thing guests need to pay for is their own meal (we will stop at a restaurant for snacks).

Tour description is here: http://delhimagic.com/metro.html It's a great tour, lots of fun.

Please email deepa@delhimagic.com if you want to help. I will only be keeping this free offer open for a short while, in the off season, for a limited number of free tours. So please write soon.

2:30 AM at Jama Masjid during Ramzan

Behind the Jama Masjid, the streets were still buzzing with activity at 2:30 AM. More photos to follow.

Photos posted here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.769636649726319.1073741837.184810518208938&type=3

The Ideal Boy, then and now

From the publishers Indian Book Depot (Map House) in Sadar Bazaar: these are the behaviours of the Ideal Indian Boy. This old chart is from the 1950's, I think. The National Cadet Corps in one of the boxes was formed in 1946, so this could be late 1940's as well.

Things haven't changed much in 21st century India; the same behaviours are considered ideal. But the chart now has pictures of girls as well. The original chart sold for 30 rupees; right now it is 70 rupees on PVC. Enjoy.

Beating the heat - Lychee seller in Old Delhi

In the 1700's, lychees came to India from Burma (they are actually originally from China). 

They have adapted well to India; and they grow well especially in Bihar, which today produces 75% of India's lychee crop. It's a difficult fruit, mainly because it has only a week or so of shelf-life, from the time it is harvested.

Lychees ripen on the tree, are harvested in May-June, and they show up on Delhi's handcarts immediately, where they are sold by weight.

Here's a closer look. There are many varieties of lychees in India, but mostly they are pale in colour by the time they come to the market. This is because fruits are transported at normal temperature conditions i.e. without pre-cooling. The market reach is limited to places/cities which can be reached quickly, since the fruits lose their attractive red colour after 48 hours.

The most popular variant is called Shahi (photo above); it is a sort of deep pink in colour, with an oblong shape and rounded end. It is grown in North Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh; and it comes to the Delhi market in May. Shahi has a distinct rose aroma; and it has a thin, more delicate skin compared to other varities of lychees.

When lychees are harvested, it is always along with the twigs and leaves (you can see the twigs in the photo). Care is taken not to let the fruit fall to the ground during harvest. They are packed in baskets along with grass, twigs and leaves, and sent to the nearest city.

Lychees growers rarely market it themselves. They actually pre-sell their crop to contractors, who then take over the orchard during harvest time. The contractor has full control over the orchard for that period. After harvest, the famer is back in control of the orchard. Of course, the contractor makes most of the money.

Better facilities for cooling, storage and transport would really improve the returns from lychee (export markets will open up more). It will also allow farmers to market directly to the cities. As always, it's a question of scale and infrastructure.

The Note-walla, Old Delhi

If you're stuck with a torn rupee note, head to the nearest note-walla. You'll see them in many places in Old City, sitting with a display of crisp 10 rupee notes. 

It's not as if there are no formal channels available for the exchange of soiled and mutilated banknotes.  The Reserve Bank of India has provided clear guidelines for it. If a note is old or damaged, you can take it to your bank, have it assessed based on the RBI guidelines, and then changed. Not all notes can be exchanged, especially those which are too brittle or damaged. 

But who wants the hassle of going to the bank and dealing with the bureaucratic procedure? And really, no one has the expertise to assess whether the note meets the Reserve Bank guidelines. So this little note-walla stall works as the instant alternative. It's queue-less, painless, and quick. For this kind of service, people are willing to pay the note-walla a commission. 

Apart from exchanging soiled notes, the note-walla also provides other services. If you have a wedding or other function in the family, and want new crisp notes to gift during the event, you can come to the note-walla. He has a "setting" with his bank clerk, and can get a bundle of new notes for you. If you're a shopkeeper who wants to provide change to his customers, you can get notes in smaller denominations from the note-walla. You can bring a stack of coins and exchange them for notes (a useful service for beggars, I'm sure). If you've been conned with a fake note, you can try asking him for help.

The note-walla's business operates in the grey zone. He has no permits or licenses to do what he is doing. But he meets a specific need, especially among less educated and less privileged people who are outside the formal banking system.

Whenever I see small businesses like this, I feel a sense of admiration for the sharp business instincts that the owner has (maybe because I totally lack this kind of instinct). This man has set up a service business based on his expertise, risk taking ability and negotiation skills, and by providing instant customer service. His stall is a simple wooden box; the hollow inside portion serves as a stool for him to sit. There's a drawer with a set of crisp new currency notes; those are his stock in trade. I'm sure he has to pay off the cops every now and then. It can't be comfortable, sitting like this in Delhi's hot summers and cold winters. But he does it, all through the year, and puts food on the table for his family.

The Bakeries of Old Delhi (and their many delights!)

For the past month, the bakeries of Old Delhi have been especially busy. Their ovens have been churning out various types of delights for the Ramzan feasts.

We walked past Sikander Bakery a couple of days ago, and found them making their popular rusks.

The popular Sikander Bakery is super-busy.
They were making rusks.

Have you seen how rusks are made? Did you know that they are "twice-baked"? The first time it is baked like a soft bread, something resembling a brioche. Then it is sliced, the slices are placed on trays and baked a second time. It's the second round of baking that makes rusks perfectly crisp for dipping into chai. 

Indian-style rusks originated by happy accident. They have their beginnings in the city of Surat, which was the biggest trading port on the Western coast of India during the reign of Jehangir and Shah Jahan. The Dutch had a settlement in Surat, and they established a bakery there, teaching the art of baking bread to five Parsi gentlemen. 

When the Dutch left Surat (I assume somewhere in the early 1800s), one Parsi gentleman called Dotivala took over their bakery. Business was not good; as locals did not eat the kind of bread that Dotivala produced. In those days, bread was fermented with toddy sap, to prevent spoiling. But old bread would lose moisture and become hard. When he was stuck with old surplus bread, Dotivala sold it to the poor at low prices. Soon he discovered that these hard breads were very popular with people, who dipped them in tea to soften them. So Dotivala began to deliberately harden his bread, through a process of drying them in the ovens a second time. And thus the "toast biscuit" or rusk was born. If you want to see what Dotivala makes these days, you should check out their website. They still have toast biscuits.

The same "double-baking" method is used in the bakeries of Old Delhi:

Soft bread out of the oven after the first round of baking.
Ready for slicing.

The slicing process.

Rusks going into second round of baking.
Bakeries are typically small operations with a
single bhatti (oven). This means the only way to
handle the Ramzan rush is by working extra hours.

In the photo below, you can see rectangular packages of rusks, wrapped in clear plastic.

Lots of rusks for sale. They are sweet as well as savoury.
In the bottom right corner you can see a circular bread called paapey, or gol-paapey.
Pappe have anise inside, and are dusted with poppy seeds after baking.
In the left bottom, you can also see pheni, which is a thin vermicelli.

The most visible thing in the market during Ramzan is pheni, very fine noodles that have been fried (supposedly) in ghee. These are eaten with hot, sweetened milk, and often garnished with pistachios and almonds. Pheni is typically a Sehri dish (pre-dawn meal). Pheni is of different types, some are super-fine, some are saffron flavoured, some are coloured, some are fried almost a dark brown.

Pheni or feni, does not need cooking as it is already fried

Pheni is sold sometimes in
long thin threads

Apart from rusk and pheni, there are lots of interesting bakery products / breads you can see in the market during Ramzan.

Sheermal is a sweet bread; usually the dough is sweetened with milk and sugar, and flavoured with saffron. It is popular in Old Delhi but many bakeries only make them during Ramzan or other festivals. Sheermal probably has origins in Iran, where they are almost twice the size of the ones below, and they are commonly sold in the markets. The Irani sheermal seems much thinner too.

Sheermal

I'm not sure what this bread is, but it looks like a sheermal that has been dunked in sugar and saffron syrup, ready to eat:

Looks awesome.

There is also khajla, deep-fried, flaky and melt-in-the-mouth.
Like pheni, khajla is also usually eaten in the
pre-dawn hours for Sehar.
Photo courtesy Nadeem Khan

Coconut Parantha, a mild-tasting unleavened
bread flavoured with coconut
(also from Nadeem Khan, thanks Nadeem!)

The soft Khamiri Rotis, baked in tandoors are hugely popular

And as if all this wasn't enough, Delhi's repertoire of baked goodies also includes lots of stuff sold all through the year in tiny shops scattered around the city.

Masala Twists

In the foreground is a pastry called "fein" or "fan".
Behind that are the always-popular cream rolls.

And of course, there is also that awesome delight, the nankhatai, about which I posted some time ago.

The Nankhatai Man

With all these treats, one would think the bakeries in Old Delhi are prospering. But it's quite clear that they are in fact, struggling to stay afloat. There aren't as many of them as there used to be. Everywhere in Old Delhi you see branded biscuits and other packaged eatables from big companies; so I am sure they are taking away a big chunk of the bakeries' business. I don't know how long these bakeries will survive.

Of Papad and Urad

On a lazy afternoon, the papad-walla is very welcome in homes and shops in Old Delhi. Here he is, selling roasted urad-dal papads, sprinkled with masala. It's the perfect snack with hot chai.

Papad seller talking to a family 
near Fatehpuri Masjid, Old Delhi.
It's not just adults who like this snack. 
Kids love it too.

Roasted papads are a very inexpensive snack (you can get 2 papads for just one rupee). They are very popular among families picnicking at India Gate in the evenings (although these days papad sellers are becoming a rare sight there). The secret of the papad's popularity is not just the low price, it's the spicy tangy masala that is sprinkled on it. You'll always see people asking for more masala :)

Among Delhi's poorer families, school-going children often eat roasted papad for breakfast, along with a cup of tea. A friend of mine, doing a PhD at Delhi, says that in one low-income community she surveyed, nearly 50% of the kids ate papad for breakfast. I was pretty shocked, really, and then I felt really stupid at my lack of knowledge of what poverty is really all about. What was I expecting? A fancy breakfast with fruit juice? 

Papad doesn't really meet any nutritional needs, although since roasted papads are made of lentils, I suppose they are better than nothing. Typically, these papads are made of urad-dal (black gram), a lentil that is native to India. In fact, India is the world's largest producer (and consumer) of urad dal. Black gram accounts for more than 40 % of total legume seeds traded in the world, although I haven't seen it being used in any Western cuisines. Have you? I think it is used in central Asia and some Asian countries. 

Whole black gram (akkha urad or sabut urad)
photographed in my kitchen

In India it is used not just for papads; but also as part of the daily diet, especially in South India, where it is a part of almost every breakfast (dosa, idli, vada).

Home-made dosa for breakfast. 
The batter is made of rice and urad dal.
The thick iron griddle is one of my prized possessions :)

In Delhi, other than papads, the most popular dish with urad dal is the famous Dal Makhani.

Dal Makhani (in the bucket) and a 
super-orangey paneer butter masala!!

At the ITC Maurya, they have their signature Dal Bukhara:

From the Arkansas blog of  Max and Ellen, who travelled with us on a Delhi Magic Tour
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/12/18/my-passage-to-india

The picture above is a collage of two separate photos - on the left is a typical meal at the Maurya's Bukhara, with tandoori roti, dal bukhara, kebabs etc. On the right is the menu of the special Presidential Platter that the restaurant created after Bill Clinton's visit. It is supposed to be for 2 people, but really, in my view, four people can eat what they serve. There is a vegetarian version of this platter as well, inspired by Chelsea Clinton.

There are several studies showing that urad-dal boosts the immune system. It is traditionally used in Ayurveda for several things, including as a face scrub, treatment for dandruff and acne, as a solution for low sperm count and erectile dysfunction in men, and for problems with menstruation. If you're interested in natural remedies, then see this link.

But if like me, your primary interest is in food, then look for a papad seller and try a roasted papad. And don't forget to ask for extra masala!

The Ice Runner

Ice delivery in Old Dehi - this is how it rolls.

Now you know why tourists should say, "No ice please!" :) :)

Signboards in Delhi - and the language debates in India

-by Aishwarya Pramod

If you drive through the streets of central Delhi, you'll come across road signs like this one:

Dr. Zakir Hussain Marg is an arterial road leading south-east from India Gate

The name of the road is written in the four main languages of Delhi - from top to bottom, these are:
- Hindi (in the Devnagri script)
- English (in the Roman alphabet)
- Punjabi (in the Gurmukhi script) and
- Urdu (in a modified form of the Persian nastaliq script).

Under Mughal rule in Old Delhi, the official court language was Persian, the formal and elaborate language of scholars.

A section of an official firman from the Mughal Emperor 
Aurangzeb's rule, late 17th century

Although Persian was used for official purposes, the real lingua franca was Hindustani - a language which pre-dated the Mughals. Hindustani arose in the 11th century AD, through contact between the local Indian population, and various Muslim invaders, traders and religious men who settled in Hindustan from the north-west. It was a hotch-potch language which allowed speakers of Turkic, Arabic and Persian to communicate with native Indian speakers. In Delhi, the popular local language was Khadi Boli. Hindustani retained the grammar and structure of Khadi Boli but also absorbed a large number of Persian, Arabic and Turkic words for better cross-cultural communication. Typically, Hindus wrote Hindustani in the native Devnagri script, while Muslims wrote Hindustani in a modified version of the Persian script. 

When the East India Company came to power after the Mughals, they continued to use Persian for administrative purposes. Only in the 1830's did the Company replace Persian by introducing English as the official language at higher levels of administration. At the lower levels, government business was conducted in Indian vernacular languages. In much of north India, this language was Hindustani. 

When the British declared Hindustani with Persian script to be a co-official language in much of north India, Hindus cried foul. They wanted the native Devnagiri script to be used.

The terms 'Hindi' and 'Urdu' came to be used for two versions of Hindustani. Both started out very similar, but slowly,  'Hindi' became the Devnagri script based, increasingly Sanskritized version, and 'Urdu' became the Persian script based version. Hindi became a Hindu language and Urdu became a Muslim language (see this article for a more detailed explanation). 

Signboard for a Unani medicine shop in Old Delhi. The Devnagri script is on the right

After the British left, the issue of official language came up again. Adopting a Constitution written in English, the colonizers' language, was offensive to many members of the Constituent Assembly. An Indian language had to be chosen.

But India had more than 400 living languages. Even apart from the growing communal divide between Hindi and Urdu, the south Indian states spoke Dravidian languages, which were entirely different. So, in which language should the affairs of government be run? And of course, which language (and which script?!) should be designated India's rashtra-bhasha, the national language?

The Constituent Assembly of India with Jawaharlal Nehru at the rostrum.
The Assembly saw many heated arguments regarding the language issue.

Nehru and Gandhi both felt that Hindustani could be used as an all-India language of communication, using both the Urdu and Devnagri scripts. Gandhi especially tried to promote Hindustani as the perfect language to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslims.

The Partition of India effectively killed all talk of Hindustani. It significantly reduced the number of Urdu speakers in India, as many Muslims went to Pakistan (although Old Delhi still has many Urdu speakers). Partition also brought in a large number of Hindu and Sikh Punjabi-speaking refugees to Delhi.

A Sikh family on the move. Post Partition, nearly 500,000 refugees poured
 into Delhi from western Punjab, Sindh and the Northwest Frontier. 

The refugees spread out through the city, squatting wherever they could. Eventually they were allocated land to the south and west of Lutyens' Delhi, where today we can see the large number of colonies dominated by Punjabis. Displaying thrift and business skills, the Punjabis eventually came to play an important role in Delhi's trade and commerce. Thus Delhi has made multiple transformations, from a Mughal, to a British, to a Punjabi city.

The refugees moved into camps, gurudwaras, temples, 
schools, military barracks, pavements as well as parks in Delhi.

After Partition, Hindi became further Sanskritized. But Hindi was even less acceptable to the Dravidian states than Hindustani (as this photo from a South Indian newspaper shows!).

Front page of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy's Tamil 
periodical Kudi-arasu (3 September 1939). 
The headline reads "Veezhga Indhi"
 (Down with Hindi)

Finally, in spite of protests, the Assembly decided that Hindi in Devnagiri script would be the government's official language. To give the non-Hindi speaking states time to learn Hindi, the Assembly decided that English would continue for the next 15 years for Centre-State communication. Also, each State and Union Territory could have their own official language for official communication within the state.

After the expiry of the 15-year period, in 1963, attempts were made to end the use of English. But large scale protests from non-Hindi speaking states ensured the continued use of English as the official language of the government.

Delhi, as a Union Territory, originally adopted Hindi as its official language. It also continues to issue orders and circulars in English. In 2003, Urdu (in the Urdu script) and Punjabi (in the Gurmukhi script) were added as official languages. Since then, all government signs, roads, etc. bear names in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and English.

Raj Path (King's Way), with the President's House at the far end

The quirky side of dentistry

Among the many businesses in Old Delhi, there is a thriving wholesale business in dental equipment. Just near Jama Masjid is a shop called Dental Depot where I spotted this blissful open-mouthed mannequin. 

On your next dentist visit, here's wishing you the same bliss :)

Mystery Shop in Ballimaran

Some one please tell me what this shop in Old Delhi is actually selling? And to whom?

Ballimaran, I am told, originally used to be the mohalla where boatmen lived. They rowed boats on the Yamuna. 

Today, only a few things are known widely about this area - a lot of people know that Ghalib's haveli (where he died) is here in Ballimaran. Rickshaw-wallahs will gladly take you there. The jooti-market is here, selling colourful leather mojdis and shoes. Then there are lots of shops selling spectacles and sunglasses; apparently this is a wholesale centre for opticals. The varq-makers live here, tapping out thin silver foil to decorate traditional sweets. And there are lots of small eateries, offering Mughlai and Afghani food. 

But the shop above - it doesn't fit into any of these, and I can't quite figure out what these various wooden rings and beads and what not are. Some of it looks like metal, some like plastic. Help!

Delicious Nankhatai biscuits in Old Delhi

No blog on Delhi is complete without a mention of these wonderful treats - light, crispy, flaky, nankhatais! I spotted this stall when I was walking along Dariba in Old Delhi, after a day of shopping for silver.

You know the best thing about these nankhatais? They're warm when you eat them! They are made hot and fresh on old-fashioned coal ovens, and when you bite into them, you get this warm crumbly deliciousness. It's difficult to stop with just one!

I love the browner ones, what about you? Store-bought nankhatais are a boring white colour, but these street stall ones usually have a lovely brown colouring. I think it's because they are stored right inside the coal oven, which keeps them warm and makes them browner. The baker usually rotates the trays, to evenly balance the heat from the coals. 

Another thing is that store-bought nankhatais are all the same size and shape, because they are cut using machines. But these ones, they are made by hand, and they have a pleasing lack of uniformity.

Try it at home. Nankhatais are downright easy to bake; you can be an utter kitchen-klutz and still turn out pretty decent nankhatais. I've made them many times, all by trial-and-error, but they always taste delicious and they always get polished off by the family in no time.

There are many variations of nankhatais, from plain to dry-fruit to chocolate flavoured. I like the plain ones best. There's a very good video here, which shows you how to make these at home: do try it! If I can do it, so can you :)

Food walk in Old Delhi (Part 2)

I've been meaning to write this for a while; a continuation of the earlier Old Delhi food walk I did with my friend Dhruv. Somehow, there just hasn't been enough time to write. But yesterday, I was looking at my album of Old Delhi, and the photos brought it all back to vivid life.

After my morning visit to Dhruv's home, we walked to Chawri Bazaar Metro Station. We spotted this gentleman hard at work, at a little street restaurant near Dehati Pustak Bhandar:

Rolling out a bedmi.

What he is rolling out is a specialty poori called a bedmi, that's typically eaten for breakfast. It's the dough itself that makes the bedmi different from a regular poori. Apart from refined flour, the dough also includes mung dal (soaked and ground), chillies, coriander power and garam masala. So - basically - it's a spicy poori, and the dough has a rough consistency.

Deep frying the bedmi after the oil is hot. It will turn a golden brown soon.

Note the two ladles that he is using? I couldn't figure out why he had one ladle in each hand, until he made his next poori.

The first golden brown bedmi is set to drain while a second puri is added to the oil.

In the morning, there is a big crowd for breakfast; and bedmis are quickly made one after another. That's why they have the two ladles; one to fry, and one to drain. It speeds up things and keeps the bedmi crisp but not too oily.

The bedmis are served hot, with a simple aloo-sabji.

The poori is quite heavy, so by the time I ate one, I was stuffed. Don't forget, I had already earlier been pigging out on gol gappas, kulcha chole and milk cake :)

But Dhruv wasn't about to let me off lightly. In true Dilliwalla style, he said to me, "But you've got to try a nagori halwa!" The nangodi or nagori turned out to be a tiny puri, a little larger than a gol gappa.

Making a little hole in the nagori

You can stuff the nagori with the same aloo-sabzi if you want a savoury bite. But if you prefer something sweet for breakfast, you can stuff it with halwa instead.

Sweet halwa in the nagori

If you want, you can also mix the two tastes, sweet and savoury, by sstuffing with halwa and dipping the nagori into the aloo sabzi as well (not my thing!).

We ended the morning with sweet refreshing tea. I left Old Delhi in a happy state - great food, good company, and to top it all, I clicked lots of interesting photos (material for several more posts, thank you Dhruv!).