Aqsa

Shahjahanabad is the old capital of the mughals built by shahjahan.
It is located right in front of the Lal Quila..the royal fortress of the mughals when their capital was in delhi.
But now the city is known as “old delhi” or the “walled city”.
“Old delhi” is the symbol of the ruins of the town that existed before the advent of the Britishers.
When the Britishers came..they started developing a new capital for themselves on the outskirts of Shahjahanabad or our very own delhi. They called it “new delhi” and thats how “old delhi” came into being.
With time a new city around the walled city of shahjahan was built. Its expanding till date.
A magnificent city was built all around the walled city but no one cared for the “walled city” itself. Tall buildings were built all around the walled city but these so called “signs of development” never touched our “walled city”.
“Walled city” still continues to be the “safest muslim neighbourhood in India” and probably for that reason the “walled city dwellers” are paying a huge price!
We dnt have good roads…its said that walled city is all about dingy streets, busy markets, butchers, and ignorant people!
Nobody wants to peep into the not-so-delhi kind of a place thats a big black spot on delhi’s posh neighbourhoods and markets. Only those who have a good taste in food visit the karim’s which is famous for its chicken! Others treat walled city as if its not there!
During the time of the so called “emergency” hundreds of houses were destroyed in the name of the master plan or sanjay gandhi’s dream of making delhi as good as paris.
Those people are still waiting to get their share of walls! Some people who were lucky enough were allotted mcd flats but the condition of mcd flats in turkman gate area is not less than slums. When you stand there..its a scary experience..
People have learned to make this distinction between “old delhi” and “new delhi” so much so that children from “old delhi” dnt get admissions to good schools in “new delhi”.
The authorities blatantly give the reason…”sorry we dnt take students from the walled city”…”rules are rules”..
they can take students who live in noida..a city in haryana that just touches delhi..but they cannot take students from the “walled city”..MAY BE WE ARE NOT HUMANS OR NOT COMPATIBLE TO OUR NEW DELHI COUNTERPARTS!!!
One of my uncles is trying to get his daughter admitted to a convent just 20 mins from our place…but they gave the reason…”we dnt take children from your area”.
When i joined hansraj one of the top most colleges in India I was reminded time and again…that i belong to “old delhi”…but now i care a damn!
The rest of the people only talk of “walled city” when they want to compare it with the lavish “new delhi”..
and for most of them…”old delhi” is just not there!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 at 10:17 am and is filed under delhi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.