DELHI- 6. Walk into the city of the King.

Thrown out of the Gallows of the insides of the ground, through unending and ever rising escalators- surrounded by more of themselves- and into the huge block of concrete - just outside the city walls of shahjanabad ( read Old Delhi) - you reach there!!
Welcome to Delhi -6!! 

Before anything else- this monstrous of concrete block, with its tentacles into the bosom of the earth- is called a metro station! And is next to another monsterity called the ISBT- which it makes look timid by comparison now! 
Leave this aside and behind and take the road into the city of the king- shahjanabad! On the Lothian road- in the direction of the Lothian cemetery- where are buried stories and people of the past! 
Let that be a story of another day! 

Yeah. Walk to the St James church. The street on way may remind you of the Mall in Shimla- cast iron colonnades- and railings to match! Bigger in scale though! Don’t miss the old gun houses and the new car upholstery shops, please! It’s almost a going away era - so note before it goes! 
You will not miss the Christian installations on the road- charitable to date! With collection boxes in place! 

Right, keep ahead - past the back of the old delhi railway station- an almost newest one about a century ago! Works as much the same now! And a host of gorgeous British buildings in this area- taken up the initial British settlers to the Mughal courts- and now by the election Commision and such of the present government! And don’t miss the battery gate and the commemorative granite obelisk by the east india company army after the Mutiny of 1857!! It sits right in the middle of the road and you d know how the army still prefers the obelisk for its central feature of the national war memorial of the day! It’s tradition!!-) 
Tikonia park- the triangular park- and you’ve reached the St James church. Restored to its glory- and with a guard to not let you in! Well, I managed!-) 
The park is a study in western public space making in Indian context, and actually works- if you can look beyond the visual clamour!!

Yes sir- on one of the edge of this space is the erstwhile Delhi College of engineering. Now a college for women. Don’t please shed tears on the apathy to
The glorious structure of the past- but do enter the inside to visit the marvellously restored Dara Shikoh Library ( which maybe never did belong to him- maybe the estate did) now renovated to house the partition museum! Kudos to InTach! 
Do sit in the main hall for a while! 

And then you move forward to find- yes- Delhi 6!! The GPO with that PIN code no!! ( for the zennial s - that’s PIN is not only a computer code-/) amazing colonial form- still functioning- and a inquiry of urban design into why is being allowed to hold a sub city area for itself with no usage!!-)

Ah- you can move forward to find the Lothian cemetery! The gates of which are closed! It is an ASI protected monument- but the guard, I guess, has other things to do! That there are young people making Instagram reels inside may make you think there is access to inside. Ask them and you d know- it’s over the wall!  Lovely tombstone architecture- but climbing the wall is not what I do anymore!!
If you retrace the route and reach the metro station back- you d find the piece d resistant of this walk- a bar which sells beer at Rs Fifty!! 

Do Enjoy!!