Delhi Heritage Walks with Sohail Hashmi - Published in Good Housekeeping September 2013 (North Edition)

Walking down the steps of the baoli in the now dried up mausoleum of Ghyas ud din Tughlak, Sohail Hashmi pauses. As do the dozen odd people in the motley group accompanying him. Sohail starts talking about the taste of the sweet water from this well – which he has himself tasted as a teen – and everyone listens in rapt attention to the real life history lesson taking place. The well at one time used to be located inside the lake that surrounded the mausoleum and was the only sweet water well for miles.

Welcome to Delhi Heritage Walks with Sohail Hashmi, a weekend activity that has become a must for all those in love with Delhi, its past and its present. Started in 2004, these heritage walks are the result of Sohail’s irrepressible love for his Delhi which was nurtured by his father. Sohail’s father dabbled in archeology and showed him the seven different Delhis in chronological order when he was still a child. He would explain how the architecture of the Arch, the Dome and the Minaret had evolved over several centuries, from the 12th century onward.

Needless to say Sohail was hooked. In 1968 Sohail ran away from school with five of his class mates to spend an entire day at Tughlaqabad. The place has had a magical hold on him since then. He grew up to document these fascinating bits of history in stone in films that he scripted. It was indeed a pleasure for him that the discovery of the kitchen area, and a stepwell by archaeologists, in Tughlaqabad, was made while he was shooting for a documentary inside the fort. These structures had been buried under rubble and silt for hundreds of years and were revealed when archeologists began clearing up the rubble of collapsed walls. 

He read about Delhi through a number of authors like Syed Ahmad Khan, Bashir-ud-Din Ahmad, Maulvi Zafar Hasan, and Lucy Peck. College professors like Prof. Percival Spear and Professor Narayani Gupta also influenced him. He always loved to walk and with a college friend he explored the many lanes and by lanes of Shahjahanabad and gradually picked up tidbits of information that were enriched later through the reading of some of the books by authors mentioned above and other sources, both written and oral.

In 2004 Sohail was running a creative activity centre for children called "Leap Years", started by Rahul Bhandare, an entrepreneur, who wanted to create spaces for children where they could engage in extra-curricular activities to help them explore their creative talents. Sohail realised that these children, given the kind of emphasis that is placed on rote learning, were growing up in this city ignorant of its shared heritage and history. So he started fortnightly excursions for them called “Discover Delhi". Very soon, he started receiving requests from parents who wanted to join in these walks. Time Out magazine carried a story on the walks, NDTV used one of his walks to hang some stories for a breakfast show and the word spread and soon the walks developed into what they are today.

A typical walk with Sohail takes about two hours and covers an area of about 2km. The pace is leisurely and allows you to imbibe the historical surroundings, as Sohail brings alive the old building with stories from the past. There are close to16 walks to choose from, including old Delhi, Kashmiri Gate, Mehrauli, Hauz Khas, and Lodi Garden to mention a few.

Did you know that the current New Delhi sits on the ancient ruins of at least 7 older cities? The oldest is referred to in the ancient Hindu text of the Mahabharata as Indraprastha. This was the city was said to have been constructed by the Pandava brothers, but there is little archeological evidence to support this theory.

Others which are better documented include -

Quila Rai Pithora (Prithivi Raj Chauhan)

Mehrauli (Qutubuddin Aibak)

Siri (Alauddin Khalji)

Tughlakabad (Ghiyasuddin Tugluq)

Firozabad (Firuz Shah Tugluk)

Shergarh (Sher Shah Suri)

Shahjehabanad (Shah Jahan)

Shahjahanabad including Lal Qila and Chandini Chowk was built in the 16^th century by the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan. This is referred to as old Delhi today, while Lutyen’s Delhi built by the British is called New Delhi and includes gems such as Rashtrapati Bhawan, North Block and South Block.

Contact Sohail Hashmi through his Facebook Page

Besides Sohail, there are others who offer heritage walks. These include the Salaam Baalak Trust (Salaam Baalak Trust website), Masterji Kee Haveli (Masterji Kee Haveli website), Delhi Food Adventure in Chandini Chowk (Delhi Food Adventure website), Old Delhi Bazaar Walk (Delhi Magic website), Delhi Heritage Walks (Delhi Heritage Walks website), The Trail of Nizam Piya (1100 Walks website.) The cost usually depends on the walk and the company organizing the walk. The cost ranges between Rs.300 for a regular walk, to over Rs.3000 for a customized one.

Read the complete interview here.

Also Published in 

 

Living History by Hillary Clinton

Living History 

  by Hillary Clinton

Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Scribner
Review of the book by Cashmere 

It is impossible to think of Hillary Clinton without thinking about her equally famous husband, Bill Clinton.
Being the first lady of the country did change the way she was perceived. In this autobiography she speaks of those years she spent in the White House and the past that led them to it.

Ever wonder what it would be like to get inside the head of the wife of one of the most powerful men on the planet? Living History By Hillary Rodham Clinton gives you that opportunity. She talks extensively about the years that she spent in the White House along with a brief history of how she got there. This is what made it interesting reading.

Indeed she is all set to portray the all American Girl who comes from a regular middle class American family. She married her college sweetheart and then shifted away from friends and family to live with him. She also supported his decision to get into politics and dealt with minor issues of her own as a lawyer and somewhere along the way she became Mrs. President.

I happened to learn some facts that I did not know, interestingly enough that my wedding anniversary and her birthday fall on the same day. For those of you who are interested that would be 26 October. And some other well documented facts were seen from her unique perspective. Although she did not mention any of the more private details of her more publicly trying times, she did not gloss over them totally either. There is no doubt that she is a strong individual.

Many instances in the book show that element of iron she has. Something that we have seen her exhibit after she took over her current appointment. At the same time she is a definite champion for women in the workplace. It is thanks to her that a number of other women and girls worldwide feel inspired.

I was most interested in what her reaction to Monica and the whole scandal was, there the book dealt with a sensitive issue proving just enough information and not too much of emotion. All in all while it did take me two long sessions to read the book, but it was well worth it. I enjoyed it despite its tendency to get too seeped in American politics at times. How can she help it, that is who she is! The human angle was great.

If you have not read it as yet, I would recommend that you do. You never know when you would be referring to her as Madam President!

The Iron Marshal by Louis L’Amour

The Iron Marshal 

by Louis L’Amour

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Bantam

Review of the book by Cashmere

The Iron Marshall is a slight departure from the usual Louis L’Amour in the fact that his hero is not a man from the wild west. He is a boy from fresh off the boat from Ireland who manages to get himself into a small frontier town in the wild west.

Tom Shanaghy is the son of a blacksmith who knows his father’s trade. A hard working family which falls on difficult times when the father becomes a farrier and joins the army as a horse-shoer and leaves for British India. He goes missing there and is presumed dead.

Tom’s mother then decides to leave for the new world of America to make a better fortune for her son and herself. However she passes away on the boat and young Tom reaches New York with no prospects and no help.

An accidental meeting with John Morrissey gets him a job and a way of life that he drifts into. Gang wars and survival are all a part of the day for him. And then one day in an effort to get away from some goons after his life he hops onto a train headed west.

He falls asleep in the empty railway car and then is woken rudely by who he presumes is a railway marshal. He is literally made to jump off the running train and lands smack in the middle of the wild west. The man throws a bundle after him thinking it to be his, but it is not.

He walks into the unknown land with a stranger’s backpack and a riffle. He saves a man from hanging and rides into his town with him. The town needs a marshal and he gets appointed. Then starts the trouble.

I wont spoil it for you. Its a good book.

Summer Holiday Homework for Moms

Yes, its holiday time for the kids and work time for the moms. There being no way that a child will be able to complete the charts and projects that are assigned to him as holiday home work all on his own, it is inevitable that the mother ends up doing them.

Here I'm showcasing my talent. LOL
This was a clock model that we had to make for mathematics. The hour and minute hands actually move.

This was a collage we made on the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi for holiday homework project in Hindi.

Then we had the means of communication coming up for environmental science. This was an older project but I decided to add it in here anyway.

Then there is the personal ongoing origami calender which has us folding an airplane a day. Although this one has been suffering some setbacks since the summer holidays began.

 Then we had the paper bags for art and craft class. I first experimented on the design that I googled with newspaper and then did it again neater in card paper.

Then there was this round of painting where we did the background of a Road Safety poster using paints in ice cube form. Mixed water colours with water and froze them for a couple of hours before my son has a blast doing an abstract art painting.

There is also a genders chart for English and a input and output devices chart for computers that have not yet been photographed. All in all an exhausting summer holiday!

Vintage Stuff By Tom Sharpe

Vintage Stuff  

By Tom Sharpe

Print Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital

Review of the book by Cashmere

I must confess that when I picked up this book I had no clue who the author was.

The picture of a man with a monocle and a lad with a revolver in typical British dress is what caught my attention. Being a big fan of PG Wodehouse I was hoping that it would be some what similar in vintage.
As I began the first chapter I could almost feel Wodehouse coming alive, but that had changed by the time I reached the second one. It was British humour, but it was not Wodehouse.

The book chronicles the adventures of a Public School Master and his recently graduated student through France. The romantic notions of the Master have played right into the hands of one of his rival Masters at the school.

This man plants a series of irresistible clues to make the adventure seem intriguing and the cause very worthwhile. After all how often do you get a letter from a Countess with her own crest asking you to come and rescue her?

What the Master needs is a sidekick, whom he discovers in the strong, but not very intelligent student. A guy who is an expert with a gun, and follows orders to the tee, that he is also the despair of his father is also mentioned. The mother naturally dotes on her son.

There are other characters such as the ex Major, who is also a Master at the school, the Headmaster, and the Matron. Not to mention the French and British Secret Police.

All in all a light and entertaining read.