Rohan Patankar spoke at The Coalition Pecha Kucha night, ‘The Bright Idea: Entrepreneurs on their Inspirations,’ on Delhi Dallying and curating the Delhi Walk Festival.
Walk with Delhi Dallying at the Delhi Walk Festival
Delhi Dallying is leading two walks at the Delhi Walk Festival this February, exploring the hidden facets of Shahjahanabad and Hauz-i-Khas. Tickets are priced at INR 400. Come join us!
Trades & Treasures of Old Delhi
February 23, 4.00pm – 6.00pm
This tour explores the bustling marketplaces of the old city and traces the complex web of commerce and culture that had made the city thrive for years now. You shall start from the familiar main street of Chandni Chowk, but soon slip into by-lanes and gallis, walking through big and small, permanent and temporary bazaars of all shapes and sizes. Once on this ‘other’ side, you’ll start looking at the old city very differently. Buy Tickets.
Hauz Khas Special
February 26, 4.00pm – 6.00pm
Hauz Khas has attracted kings, saints, scholars, artists and musicians to its banks for over eight hundred years. Arguably the seat of contemporary creative practice and subversive culture in Delhi, it has also become one of the most polarizing neighbourhoods in the city. On the Hauz Khas Special walking tour, explore the social, cultural and economic dynamics of the urban village over the years and define why it is so unique. Buy Tickets.
A Week Long Festival of Exploring Delhi on Foot
85 Walks and 30 Walk specialists help you discover multiple layers of the city.
For the last few months Delhi Dallying has been working with the folks over at Delhi, I Love You, putting together the country’s first ever celebration of walking and exploring. Supported by the Delhi Government, the Delhi Walk Festival brings together 30 walk specialists and 85 walks, specially curated by the team. Spread across the last week of February, these super-affordable walks cover a range of themes and neighbourhoods. There are also exciting events and performances planned for our festival hubs in Old Delhi, New Delhi and Qutub Complex. Believe us, there’s something for everyone.
Explore Delhi like never before. Browse available walks on the Delhi Walk Festival website and purchase tickets on BookMyShow.
New York, New York
Last August, Bhavika moved to New York to study design at the School of Visual Arts. Varun has now joined her and is pursuing a masters in real estate from Columbia. With two thirds of DD now in the Big Apple, is it time for some New York Dallying?
Postcard and photograph by our super talented friends at The Postcard People.
Art for Nepal
Help Nepal rebuild while you also stock up on some handmade, handstamped and signed art.
Hi guys! We’ve been in extended hibernation but here’s something that’s shaken us out of our slumber. Dallier Rohan Patankar has started a wonderful initiative called Art for Nepal.
Rohan spent a few weeks in Nepal last year, where he made some beautiful sketches. In the aftermath of the earthquakes that devastated the country last month, he has decided to sell limited edition prints of his artwork, profits from which will be used in Nepal to help the Rotaract Club of Kopundol rebuild the homes of 25 families of the Suan village in the outskirts of Kathmandu.
These pieces can be bought online and Rohan promises free shipping across India within 20 days. You can write to rohan.patankar90@gmail.com for orders and shipping to outside India.
Have a look at the range of prints and postcards on offer by browsing through Rohan’s Facebook album. Indian nationals can contribute to the project by buying the prints online via Instamojo.
Shooting Stories : A Photography Walk + Workshop through the Ruins of Jahanpanah
Register Here! https://getfbpay.in/delhidallyingshootingstories/
The City of Jahanpanah is probably the most obscure of Delhi’s seven older cities. What remains of it today is unassumingly nestled in the heart of South Delhi and it’s state of ruin is both charming and heart wrenching. Imagining the stories that inhabited these spaces and capturing them on camera is what we are doing this November. Spread over two days, this Photography Walk + Workshop gives you a chance to explore the ruins of Jahan panah while documenting it through photography and building your own unique narrative around it.
On the first day, we take you on a curated tour through Begumpur village and the Bijay Mandal park and monument complex, accompanied by professional photographer Pavan Mehta of Mahatta & Co. The guided photo-walk will meander through a contemporary city park, a 400 year old village, the 600 year old mosque after which the village is named, and a curious and overgrown 700 year old monument complex. While participants take in some of the fascinating history and development of the village, they will be encouraged to look for their own stories and capture them on camera.
Over the next 29 hours, participants will develop their photo-stories by independently shooting on site, selecting photographs and establishing a narrative, which would be reviewed and critiqued by at the Mahatta & Co. studio in Connaught Place on the second day. This would also be followed by a masterclass in architectural photography and post-processing.
Session 1
Curated walk in and around Bijay Mandal and Begumpur Village with stories from the area, and Photo-Ops and Tips along the way
Saturday 22nd November: 8am to 11am
Session 2
Review and Post-Processing Workshop
Sunday 23rd November: 4pm to 5.30pm
Requirements
DSLR camera and a basic knowledge of how it works.
Charges
INR 2000 per person (includes both sessions)
(Registration charges of INR 500 to be paid online + Balance payment of INR 1500 to be made on the event day)
All participants will receive a handcrafted Delhi Dallying package. We will also be serving water, tea and snacks.
We urge you to register soon as we have limited spots (10 participants). If you have any questions about the walk and the registration process, please email us at hello@delhidallying.com
#Walktober
As the weather becomes favourable for exploring the city, Delhi Dallying shares some of its favourite stories from Old Delhi, every Saturday this October. Join us as we explore the obvious (read food) and beyond – the mohallas, the gallis and the markets – to understand what makes this medieval city tick today.
We’re looking at the extra-ordinary in the everyday Shahjahanabad through two lenses – take your pick!
Independent: Celebrations and Myth-Busting in the Old City
In the monsoon of 2012 we visited Old Delhi almost every week for a group research project at architecture school. We were trying to understand the Old City’s complexity and see how it was different from the Delhi that we lived in. Over many visits to the same mohalla (neighbourhood), we had effectively invited ourselves over to the home of a family we had befriended, for iftaar and flying kites. Our families remained skeptical about us going there on Independence Day – perhaps it is human nature to be wary of what one doesn’t understand.
Although, not too eager to sacrifice a holiday for what seemed like work, our curiosities still got the better of us and we pushed ourselves to just go. From the moment we emerged out of the ground from the metro station at Hauz Qazi Chowk (popular as Chawri Bazaar Metro Station), we realized that it was indeed a special day. This Chowk, where the crowds were usually dizzying, was almost deserted. We hopped on to a cycle rickshaw and started making our way to Sharif Manzil in Ballimaran, a place we had frequented ever so often over the summer.
As we entered Ballimaran, we realized that the streets that were usually bursting with people and commerce were silent – just long rows of closed shutters. Some men were selling goats for sacrifice – Eid was coming up in a few days. For a fleeting moment one assumed that with Ramzaan going on, all shops being shut and the weather being sultry, most people would be indoors- just another holiday like it was for most of ‘New’ Delhi. Little did we know.
Crossing Ghalib’s haveli, we ventured into the gate of Sharif Manzil. We spotted our friend and host, 27 year old Amir and his cousins on the terrace, five floors above us, from the chowk in front of their building. Amir’s ground floor garment shop that also sold kites during the season and the neighbouring cyber cafe were both shut. Amir had asked us to make our way up to the chhat. The first flight of steep and long stairs took us directly to a generous balcony on the second floor. We went up the rickety spiral staircase, passed through a passage and climbed a ladder to reach the fourth floor. Finally we walked up a narrow staircase to the terrace and we were engulfed with sounds and color.
The terrace itself was not so much a flat plane but a collection of distinct rooftops connected to each other. The highest of these had been appropriated by the patangbaaz. We arrived just as the motley crew of boys and young men were helping Amir set up a kite, thread the ribs and roll the manja on to the pin. Their undeclared captain wielded the huge kite, maybe five times the size of a normal one, tugging at it, waiting for it to catch the wind. Middle aged uncles looked on endearingly, calling out advice as they deemed fit. It was a grand production.
Amid the shouts of “kati, kati, KATI!” , we could hear some Bollywood music playing in the distance. Amir told us that mohalla usually hired a DJ and it was almost an open air terrace party on Independence Day. However, with the month of Ramzaan being observed, it was only correct to be respectful. Most of these people hadn’t eaten or even had a sip of water the whole day and still they were flying kites, shouting out to each other and just generally, being happy. There was an electric buzz in the air. The sky was a brilliant blue canvas against which hundreds of kites were painted. The emotion was building up like the heavy humidity that was so common this time of the year, though Amir pronounced it a clear afternoon. “As long as it’s windy, and kites are flying, it won’t rain.”
Interactions with Amir and his family, who have been residents of the mohalla for generations, revealed that even though the closeness between neighbours had reduced over the years, there remained an implicit feeling of mohalledari. Children were jumping across parapets from chhat to chhat , and everyone was a chacha, tau or bhai – there was an overwhelming sense of familiarity.
The visual connection across terraces enhanced the interaction, both within and between mohallas, at a scale which is not imaginable on the street. Though the terraces belonged to individual families, they were not distinct from each other, making them a common resource for the mohalla. The chatt was a whole new realm of public space.
Occasionally, one would see, a flock of pigeons collide with another and then circle back to their masters. The sport of kabutarbaazi is still prevalent in many neighbourhoods in the Old City, where a kabutarbaaz trains his pigeons to not only come back on call but also steal a few from other flocks on the way! The Khans themselves had many pigeons, some of whom were bought at prices as high as 20,000 rupees a pair.
The sky was mesmerizing as the sun started to set – the tricolor, backlit by the waning sun and the approaching clouds, and was fluttering against a sea of terraces. In that light, even the monstrous MCD building suddenly looked quite harmless. The patangbaazi was starting to wind up and Amir’s kite, which had soared high up and attacked fiercely at first, had met its end as the winds changed.
Soon the azaan was called, one mosque after the other. There were fireworks at the Jama Masjid as the sky went pink. We helped spread some mats and bring out the food and sat with the entire family on the chhat. They opened their fast (roza) with dates and fruit. It felt private, but they were genuinely warm and welcoming. We joined in the feast of hot pakoras and gulped down some Fanta for good measure.
Being a part of that spirit made us realize that in this part of the city, 15th August is so much more than just another holiday, it is truly a celebration, not just of our independence but also the monsoons, the winds and togetherness. This day was all about collectively appropriating the sky, which belongs to all of us, with hundreds of kites and flags, by people, young and old. And there is a strange sense of freedom in just this awareness.
This post is co-written by Bhavika Aggarwal, Rohan Patankar and Varun Bajaj. It is a recollection of their visit to Old Delhi on 15th August, 2012 as part of a research project with Ammani Nair and Vani Sood. Their research paper ‘By the People : Complexity in the Commonplace’ can be found here.
A version of this post appeared on the August 15, 2014 issue of The Scribbler.
Walk 3.0 – St.ART Shahpur Jat – Walking and talking while gawking!
Our time in Shahpur Jat with St.ART Delhi has been great. We especially enjoyed taking people on walks around the village, weaving together narratives around the art as well as the history of the village. We did a total of 5 walks, 4 of which were open to the public and 1 which was for guests from the various embassies and institutes affiliated with the festival.
We took a meandering path in and around the village, starting at Bikaner Sweets, near August Kranti Marg and ending with some chai and pakoras at the terrace of the lovely Potbelly restaurant on the northern edge of the village. Each participant was given a lovingly crafted ‘St.ART Delhi Dallying Kit’, which had a lot of goodies including maps of the village, postcards with some of the artwork, information cards about the village and the festival, the very useful Moving Delhi cards and probably the most exciting of all – stencils! At the end of each walk, our participants could leave their mark by painting on Delhi Dallying’s very own graffiti wall!
While the festival is now over, the art remains and the urban village of Shahpur Jat is still as fascinating. We can’t wait to be back with a new walk and new theme! Until then, here are some photographs!
Little package of love – the St.ART Delhi Dallying Kit
Wowed by Yantra’s wall (Image Courtesy: Neha Gupta)
Showing one’s love for street art and Delhi on Delhi Dallying’s very own graffiti wall!
Ending with chai, pakoras and some great conversation at The Potbelly
Delhi Dallying 