Badarpur Sarai

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Badarpur sarai, around which the urban village of Badarpur grew, was a rest-stop on the road between Delhi and Agra. All that visibly remains today of the 18th c. sarai are three gateways, remnants of the enclosing wall and a mosque, which has been much altered since. Till a couple of years ago, Delhiites may have spotted the southern gateway while stranded in the frequent traffic jams on Mathura Road here, but since the large elevated intersection was built at Badarpur, this sighting has been given a bypass. Continue reading →

Lado Serai

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I visited Lado Sarai for the first time to take a look at the few historical structures still standing there. While the structures are small and few, they are interesting to visit for various reasons. There are a couple of nameless tombs, one mosque and a dargah just outside the village. All three structures within Lado Sarai village are from the Lodhi era (15th c.) Continue reading →

Qila Rai Pithora Walls (And A Little Bit Of Jahanpanah)

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Many Dilliwalas are familiar with the portion of the fortifications of Qila Rai Pithora (which date back to the 12th c. AD) that are visible along Press Enclave Road along the Qutb Golf Course boundary. There was also a portion of the wall that stuck out onto Aurobindo Marg just north of Lado Sarai that was under litigation for many years and which was finally (sometime in the 1990s I think) torn down to widen Aurobindo Marg. And then there are the Lal Kot fortification ruins north of Mahrauli in the Sanjay Van area that I had covered in my Mehrauli post. Continue reading →

Pulbangash Flyover

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There is a flyover coming up in the Pulbangash/Bara Hindu Rao area of central Delhi, north of the Sadar Bazaar area and west of Old Delhi, that’s going to cut into some parts of Delhi that date back to the late-19th/early-20th c. Most of the buildings have been “updated” since then and much of the landscape has changed, but this is an outlying part of the “core” area of Delhi that constituted Delhi before 1947. It might not even have been considered “outlying” if one added the growth around Old Sabzi Mandi and Karol Bagh areas in the early 20th c. Continue reading →

Bridge Beside Shah Alam’s Tomb-Mosque Complex

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In my previous post I had mentioned the tomb-mosque complex of Shah Alam in Wazirabad in north Delhi, a saint during Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s time (late 14th c.). While the domes of this complex could always be seen rising above the treeline from the main Ring Road passing behind the structures, the new Wazirabad flyover/bridge (still under construction) has opened up views of the 14th c. bridge associated with the tomb-mosque, so I thought I’d put up a couple of photos of the bridge. Continue reading →

Qadam Sharif And Nearby Qutb Road Structures

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Qadam Sharif was originally built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq (14th c.) as a tomb for his son Fateh Khan, but the structure has been heavily altered since. The tomb, now located in the Pahar Ganj area, was enclosed inside an irregular kot (fortification) with gateways to the north and east. Little remains of these fortifications except the eastern gateway and parts of the northern gateway. Both were double gateways. Continue reading →

Old Delhi’s Old Cinema Halls

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While exploring Old Delhi and adjoining areas like Sadar Bazaar and Pahar Ganj, I’ve come across some deliciously intriguing decades-old cinema halls. Some are doing fine, some just getting along, while some seem to have shut shop or might be under litigation. This post is a visual exploration of those theaters – I haven’t gone into their histories, though I’m sure each and every one would reveal interesting stories with a little digging into. I’m assuming that these cinema halls all came up between the 1950s and 80s, though dates would have to be confirmed. Continue reading →