Years before being a foodie became fashionable, one of my former editors had rather grandiosely declared that there should be national awards for cookery like the Padma awards. For someone like me who has no academic interest in food, except a refined taste in chocolate and 32 sweet teeth, I thought he had lost it. And this after getting struck at a “foodie” party, where some of the top foodies of the country were willing to go to literally fight tooth and tongue about the nuances of chicken chettinad and whether cinnamon should be soaked with the dal makhni and how long it needs to be simmered or details to that effect!
I have studiously avoided getting involved in the food debate except once in a while when one of my “foodie” doctor friends deem it fit to enlighten me about moot features of various delicacies. For a person who is an armchair cook, he has the most amazing array of cookbooks that he refers to, to get all the ingredients right. He has actually helped me wake up to the great food debate that is seeing a growing resurgence over the years. Resurgence, for there are some very interesting tales about food and there seems to be an ever-increasing food brigade who will launch forth into an expedition to find the object of their palette’s desire.
I belong to the increasingly vanishing breed of the original Dilliwalla and pride myself on having a developed a palette for all types of chaat. And as any blue-blooded foodie will tell you that there is no place like Delhi, especially Old Delhi or Purani Dilli for the world’s best chaat. One of my greatest gastronomic forays has been wandering in the gallis of Chandni Chowk tasting chaat of specialised vendors. From aloo-kachori to pani batasha to kalmi-vada chaat to seasonal delicacies like daulat ki chaat and an array of fruit kulfis, I am happy to go into an orgasmic delight at the very prospect of eating Dilli ka khana at any opportunity. And on occasions when my stomach completely refused to co-operate with my tongue, I have taken food packets home like one greedy pig.
I remember and salute some of the vendors of Chandni Chowk who have disappeared over the years and the taste of their specialised foods still lingers in the memories like a long lost love. Like the amazing dal halwa guy at the entrance of Dariba, who still ranks highest among the ones I miss. Never before and never after have I tasted moong dal halwa like his. Or the malai-ki-baraf fellow who would lug his wares in an earthen matka and serve the kulfi/ice creamy ambrosia on freshly-washed velvety leaves. Or the Daulat ki chaat fellow, whose light-as-air desert was truly nothing short of art.
Last week I was invited to a Dilli ka Pakwaan festival by the Delhi Tourism and wondered what it had to do with art and I remembered my former editor! But it was a pleasant surprise to find rows of food stalls from various parts of the city serving authentic Delhi cuisine and cultural events adding zing to the gastronomic delights. I was delighted to discover how the kulfi has taken a step further by adding unique flavours like paan, black currant, kiwi and custard apple. Traditional and popular dance and music added to khane ka mazza for those who could eat no further! But I must say it is indeed another reason for the world heritage city status for this absolutely wonderful city steeped in culture.
Delhi was also the flavour of Yajanika Arora’s exhibition Shaher-e-Dilli. A broadcast and media professional the artist took to sketching as a means to fight the dark abyss post meningitis together with nerve palsy, her series are inspired by architecture. Architecture cannot divorce itself from drawing, no matter how impressive technology gets. Drawings are not just end products: they are part of the thought process of architectural design. Drawings express the interaction of our minds, eyes and hands. This last statement is absolutely crucial to the difference between those who draw to conceptualise architecture and those who use the computer.
It can be argued that architectural drawing can be divided into three types: The “referential sketch,” the “preparatory study” and the “definitive drawing.” What Yajanika brings to the limelight is referential sketch that serves as a visual diary, a record of an architect’s discovery. There is a certain joy in their creation, which comes from the interaction between the mind and the hand. Our physical and mental interactions with drawings are formative acts. A sketch may serve a number of purposes: It might record something that the artist sees, it might record or develop an idea for later use or it might be used as a quick way of graphically demonstrating an image, idea or principle.
And I came away with a clutch of wistful memories and how my grandmother would address Chandni Chowk or the walled city as “sheher” and the sensory experiences that make a city — its people, their food and its architecture…Viva la Delhi!

Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com