Humpty Dumpty sat on the walled city !

Approaching the last fortnight of my bachelorhood, I decide to do something which I might not be able accomplish in my ’spoused’ days. I call up my college friend Vinay who has been my partner of crime for over a decade now when it comes to eating and generally, like yours truly, has zero guilt regarding calories and waist line while consuming jumbo meals

After a quick discussion we decide upon going to the Walled city and have dinner at Karim’s - which is the oldest mughal -cuisine restaurant in India.

We reach the walled city (also called Shahjahanbad- A part of Delhi that hosts Red Fort and Jama Masjid) way before the dinner time, so we choose to kill couple of hours acting tourists.

We go inside the Jama Masjid and Vinay enquires if the entry to the minaret is still open. Thankfully it is. We purchase the tickets and climb up the minaret which has stairs that were constructed perhaps during some cost cutting phase. Shah Jahan could have done better by putting in more steps. It’s like climbing two instead of one. That takes toll on your ankle and knee.


Since Jama Masjid is a functional mosque and not a heritage maintained by Archelogical survey of India, the walls are devoid of any graffiti. Which is a welcome sign.
I climb up the minaret and take few photos from my mobile until I am pushed down by several other mobile clad amateur snappers.

Cursing the ever increasing population, I come down and head for Gate no 1, which lead towards chawri bazar (while the other bifurcation goes to famous G B Road) Within 30 meters, lies my destination for the evening- The Karim’s

If the discovery channel is to be trusted, the mughal invader Babar didn’t like three things about India :

1) Garmi (hot weather)
2) Husn (Beauty) and
3) Naan
While we cannot testify the first two, I am convinced about the third one as I taste the first bite of the mughalai naan- which is seriously ahead of the punjabi avatar.

After consuming 4 such Naans , 1 kadhai chicken , 4 Mutton seek kabab and 1 plate of mutton burra I give up. Not because my belly cannot accommodate more food, but because the restaurant doesn’t accept credit card and the nearest ATM is quite far !

Thankfully the desert is complimentary. I finish up what is another special at Karim’s - The ‘Habshi Halwa’ without any culpability of having consumed enough calories which could well be the humane intake for the whole week. This ‘Bakasur’ meal has brought an abrupt end to my six month old resolution of calorie constrained diet. After a long time, I face a situation when I am thirsty but I am so full that I cannot take a single gulp of water. I want to walk but my legs are numb- I have been so much busy eating, I missed out to change the posture of my feet.

After a while we come out of the restaurant. I’m sure Vinay is also feeling like Humpty Dumpty that might fall and might need all the kings men to put the pieces together.

It’s quite late but there is something about the lanes of the Old Delhi that has its own magnetic effects.

I take the risk of missing the last metro and go inside one of the narrow lanes- the lanes that have witnessed so much. From Nadir shah’s barbarism to execution of Guru Teg Bahadur to Killing of Bahadur shah zafar’s sons.

It’s so much full of road side eateries selling meat that it gives an impression as if everybody is on a kill-and-sell spree.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I bump into one of the entrances of Chawri Bazar metro station where the mere display about arrival of Connaught Place bound Metro train forces me to quit this tryst with history and I take the escalator down with a firm decision of coming back at the next opportunity :)


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