Dil walon ki Dilli

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
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Reading a beautiful novel ‘Delhi ki Arjumand Bano’ by Abdal Bela.. The story is about a person’s love for his city Delhi and her daughter Arjumand Bano. Just read one chapter of the novel, where the person tells her daughter story of Delhi - the story of its development and destruction.. In the words of the person ‘Main Pichle janam main Delhi ka Laal Qila tha’ and when daughter asked ‘Baba! Main kon thi aur kahan thi’, he replies ‘Tum Delhi ki Jama Masjid ho, jo hamesha aabad rahi hai, aur hamesha aabad rahe gi’. Quite emotional talk about the city.

One thing more! the story is set in early 1930’s and the person loved all parts of city except New Delhi dieveloped by British Rulers. In his words ‘Delhi is like my mother except New Delhi which is like step mother and step mothers get you out of your home’.

There are many books on Delhi and seems its loved by everyone. Khushwant Sngh’s ‘Delhi’, Intezar Hussain ‘Dilli tha jiska Naam’ and ‘City of Djins’ by William Dalrymple…

So any Delhiwalas here, do share your feelings about your lovely city :smiley:

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

No Delhiwallas on GS :(

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Dehli is full of history and amazing culture.

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

aapko The kaur ka intezar kerna hoga...she is from delhi...............:D

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Ninja, You never been to Delhi?

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Sirf ek baar gayaa tha wo bhi winter me........................:D

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Ninjii tum kahaan ke ho?

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Apa I m from India.........Nagpur...............:D

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

So which places did you visit there.. Laal Qila & Jama Masjid gae the?

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Lal qila no............

qutub minar, Jama Masjid,and Hazrat nizammuddin tomb...............:D

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

So what was your over all experience of Dilli.. Do you feel like 'Ek bar dekha hai, doosri bar dekhne ki hasrat hai'.

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Haan inshallah Delhi fursatse dekhni hai.my brother recommended that I should explore old Delhi.but lot of ppl hesitate to visit Delhi.as Delhi has highest crime rate as compared to other metros.

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

the kaur will tell us more about the latest situation of Delhi.. but I think the law & order is a problem for almost all big cities. We have learned to expand cities, but don't learn how to maintain them :(

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Anyone knows about Beejai Mandal, Begum Pur Masjid, Koocha e Fidaiyan of Delhi. I read about these last night.

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

We call it purani dilli, Kareem chicken, haji ke kebabs, RamBhog ke chhole bhature, chandni chowk, Chawri bazar, lal quila are in purani dilli, Chand Raat is best celebrated in purani dilli

And especially a city which is part of Gujaristan and Jatland:D, but TV wallahs sensationalize the news too much, even a bit rise in temperature is sesationalized:D

Lal Quila and Jama Masjid are very much near to each other, you need to cross the Netaji Shubhash Road, you might be too young when you visited it:)

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

All these structures are part of Jahanpanah, another part of purani dill and are part of locality of purana qila, if you remember when Geroge Bush came to India he gave his speech from Purana Quila:)

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

I hope to read about places mentioned in your post in next chapters of the novel :D

For vicinity of Lal Qila & Jama Masjid, the same situation is with Badshahi Masjid & Shahi Qila of Lahore.

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Yes the family mentioned in novel lives near Purana Qilla...

I read about Lahore in Bano Qudsia's novel Raja Gidh (mentioning details about many places and garden of the city) and when I visited Lahore after reading novel, I didn't find the city strange.. I felt as I knew the roads and places already.

Now this novel contain some nice information about places of Purani Dilli..

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Delhi has changed a lot, purani dilli is most densely populated area, with loads of electricity wire hanging around and primitive buildings in the interior area. The placement of various capitals, like Indraprastha, jahanpanah, Shajahanabad are with in 10 kms of each other, new development on the eastern bank of Delhi is entirely new addition. Any one who has read books of 20s would be disappointed but just like Anarkali bazar delhi retains it old flavour

from stairs of Jama Masjid one can see lal quila

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Re: Dil walon ki Dilli

Zauq's poetry on dilli:)

mai.n vo majanuu.N huu.N jo nikaluu.N ku.nj-e-zi.ndaa.N chho.Dakar

mai.n vo majanuu.N huu.N jo nikaluu.N ku.nj-e-zi.ndaa.N chho.Dakar
seb-e-jannat tak na khaauu.N sang-e-tiflaa.N chho.Dakar

[ku.nj=corner; zi.ndaa.N=prison; sang-e-tiflaa.N=stones thrown by children]

mai.n huu.N vo gumanaam jab daftar me.n naam aayaa meraa
rah gayaa bas mu.nshii-e-kudarat jagah vaa.N chho.Dakar

ahal-e-jauhar ko vatan me.n rahane detaa gar falak

laal kyuu.N is rang se aataa badaKhshaa.N chho.Dakar

[ahal-e-jauhar=knowledgeable people; falak=sky (here it means fate)]

ghar se bhii vaaqif nahii.n us ke ki jis ke vaaste

baiThe hai.n ghar-baar sab ham Khaanaa-viraa.N chho.Dakar

in dino.n garche dakan me.n hai ba.Dii qadr-e-suKhan **
kaun jaaye "Zauq" par dillii kii galiyaa.N chho.Dakar **