Delhiwale: This way to David Street

Daryaganj's David Street reflects loss with absent vendors and a vanished bridge, yet remains lively with tea drinkers and laborers watching cricket.

In the olden times, when the Sunday Book Bazar of Mahila Haat unfolded every week along the long Daryaganj pave, it was the ‘Lohe Wala Pul’ — the iron bridge — that marked the market’s last point. The foot overbridge was dismantled more than a decade ago.

Leena Kapoor, the great-granddaughter-in-law of Saul David, the man who gave his name to the street. (HT Photo)

That was the area’s first loss.

The next landmark to go was barber Baldev Raj’s long-time pavement establishment at the foot of the bridge. Baldev Raj hasn’t been seen for three years.

And aloo paratha vendor Abdul Rehman, who would set up his stall next to Baldev Raj, wasn’t seen for months until he returned a day ago. He was unwell, he explains.

In brief, the opening segment of David Street is permeated with a feel of absences.

The Old Delhi lane, however, becomes livelier ahead. Argumentative tea drinkers are gathered about Mushtaq’s buzzy chai stall, the air scented with the aroma of doodh and adrak.

The lane goes past scores of businesses dealing with AC “spare parts.”

These shops are dwarfed by a grand mansion standing at the mouth of the street. The building’s name is sculpted in giant lettering —Hanging Bridge. This must undoubtedly refer to the vanished Lohe Wala Pul.

She graciously agrees to pose for a portrait. See photo.

PS: Part 2 of this dispatch appears next Saturday.

The house number in the photo has been smudged over for privacy reasons.