There is a perception, in Delhi, that a trip to a Muslim locality means lip-smacking non-veg food, and a home grown exotica, as Muslim roam in their skull caps, and the more enterprising even wear the Dishdasha, the long white dress worn by Arab men. On the roadsides are people barbecuing delicious kebabs, pieces marinated chicken hanging from skewers. Then there is a grand mosque, which usually form the nodal point of the place, where the residents go, and where the visitors (non-Muslims) go, to get a different experience. For all its claims of being multi religious, India is still segregated along religious lines, and Hindu visiting these localities finds them to be exotic, even switching to rudimentary Urdu to show that he fits in.
The most famous of these places, undoubtedly, is the Chandini Chowk/Jama Masijd area, but there are other. Theres the
Matka Pir near Purana Qila, and also,
Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah in Nizamuddin.
Thursday night, was a get together for a facebook group, which purpotedly meets once a week to visit little known places in Delhi and to taste the local cuisine. The plan was, meet up at 7 pm, go visit the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin, listen to the qawwali, retire to a nice non-veg restaurant and gorge on meat.
Me, my wife and a friend decided to go, but we reached an hour and a half late. By that time, the others had already left, so it was left to us to explore that area. This was not the first time for me, as I had visited the place earlier, searching to the tomb of Ghalib, reaching early morning. I had found the place to be pleasant, though unremarkable for such a historical place. A regular
basti.
This time, however, the scene was completely different. When we reached the place, it was thronging with people, all heading towards the dargah. On the sides were hawkers selling flowers and
chadars to be placed at the tomb. It was like a visit to any Hindu holy place, except that this was a Muslim place. Lots of crowd, hawkers selling you
pooja materials, or
ibaadat materials, as Muslims would call it.
To get to the main dargah, one has to go through a very narrow lane, lined on each side with more hawkers selling more
chadars. The lanes themselves are quite bright lit, crowded and full of life. If you have seen
Rockstar, you know what to expect.
The first view of the
dargah is a sight in itself, coming as it does after a long walk through narrow lanes, never expecting to see any open spaces. There is a main
dargah an a smaller
dargah, which comes first. A long line had formed outside, as people lay chadars and prayed. But there was a shortcut as well, where people could simply touch heads at the walls. The only catch was that the persons who made it happen would then ask for a small donation. The same thing was witnessed on the main
dargah as well, where we were able to bypass a serpentine queue by making a donation of Rs 200/-. Reminded me of my Tirupati trip, with its variously priced tickets that can get you faster service. I was able a get a quicker
darshan by paying a small
dakshina, which I am sure will be used towards the
dargah maintenance.
The praying over, no it was time to get down to the real purpose of the visit, namely qawwali and some nice non-veg food.
Unfortunately, the qawwali, which was scheduled to begin at eight, hadn't begun till nine-thirty, and there was no telling when it would begin. Looking at the crowd around me, I wasn't too confident about it starting too soon, so we had to abandon that idea.
The other part of the plan was food. We set out to savour what the
galis of Nizamuddin had to offer. The jostling in the crowd had increased my hunger further, and I looked forward to some nice mutton. The first disappointment was that most of the restaurants at the place did not serve mutton. It was only chicken or beef, neighter of which I wanted. Only one restaurant in Nizanuddin served mutton, and that was at the beginning of the street, so we had to walk a long way back, only to be told that there was a waiting period.
We were able to get a table soon enough, and gorge on som nice mutton.
Alas, the food did not live up to our expectations! To be fair, we did not know what to expectation there. Our expectation were solely based on the experience of Chandini Chowk and the Matka Pir, both of which had been good. But the Nizamuddin experience was found lacking. For starters, the kebabs did not have any salt in them, neither did the tandoori chicken. The rotis were too hard, and the mutton gravy was sweet due to too much onion. This kind of food is not acceptable at a regular place, let alone at a place which is a tourist attraction and also a place visited by so many pilgrims. The service was bad as well, as it took more than twenty minutes for the order to come. Even the cold drinks took time!
A simple meal, which could be had in half hour took nearly on hour. Not a good service, and that too, after an exhausting trip.
All in all, the best part of the trip was the walk to the dargah, through the narrow lanes.
Also, I realized that I should not generalize. Just because I am going to a Muslim dominated place that has a famous monument as well, does not mean I will get good food as well. For that, I just stick to Matka Pir.
