A White Palace surrounded with green lawns spread on an artist’s canvas, this Connaught Place in the heart of Delhi is not a view of present day but a black and white video of 1938 reminisced by an audience from across the world on Facebook.
Marianne Furtado Nazareth, who shared the video with her friends, remembers each detail of her childhood days in CP bit by bit.
“As kids in the late ‘70’s, Dad (Wg/Cdr AM Furtado) took us to Nirulas to have burgers. I loved the spicy grilled chicken and my brothers went for the Big Boy Mutton Burgers. The fries which went with them were out of this world and of course we had a full blooded Thumbsup!” she says.
Nazareth, a senior journalist who has been living in Bengaluru for decades visited her beloved CP last year. All she said is “it was crowded” and pitching for conserving the legacy of the business hub, she added “no shopping mall can beat the shopping experience in the pillared verandahs and stylish shops.”
Build in the 1933 and named after Prince Arthur, the 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, CP saw flocks of politicians, journalists, students and shoppers in those days.
“As a student in 1980, we used to frequent this place. In the late 70s, Palika Bazar came up as an air-conditioned market. It was indeed a novelty in those days. Its uniqueness and fragrance has gone away now,” says Malay Neerav, Professor of History (Honour) at St Stephen’s College, Delhi University.
Neerav almost paints a map of CP without missing even a single corner of the 14 blocks named after the English alphabet.
People are nostalgic about this part of the city where they would get anything they want even now. The iconic shops which still continue to attract shoppers, friends, professionals and night birds arouse the nostalgia of old days, while the meddling by changing authorities continue to play with this beauty.
While the best bread was baked at the Wengers in A-Block, the coffee at the United Coffee House has aged like wine. From, the Embassy to the Khadi Bhavan, Neerav navigates visually to The Host restaurant, Volga, paradise of party goers: Giggles and takes to the final destination of cinema lovers: PVR Rivoli, Odeon and The Plaza.
A liquor store-turned-bookshop, Bookworm was closed down in 2008. The online portal Delhi Walla, in its obituary of the bookshop writes that it was visited by celebrated world-famous Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
The CP was a house to famous bookshops like Jain Book Depot, E.D. Galgotia & Sons, New Book Depot, Rama Krishna and English Book Store too.
“They were not only where books were sold but weeping grounds for authors and for intellectuals to think... it were not the e-book days… these were the excellent phases to interact with people,” Neerav quips.
Nabhi Kumar Jain, the owner of Jain Book Depot, has been coming to the bookshop for 60 years. It is also looked after by his son, Manav Jain who is the IV generation in their family to do the business. “The culture of book shopping has vanished in CP. We are the only ones who are ideally surviving here and the reason is because it is our traditional business. Our shop is also not on rent,” says Manav Jain. Presently, the Oxford Bookstore attracts young crowd mainly for its attraction ‘ChaBar’, a coffee shop.
Jain is furious with the newly announced plan of banning vehicles by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). “It is a commercial market not a tourist spot. They are trying to turn it into a museum. The booklovers who cherish coming to buy books on foot are middle-aged, oldies and differently-abled. They usually get dropped outside the shop and spend hours here. This is a brazen idea to throw us out of business,” senior Jain said.
CP once had the best of tailoring shops. While it is a “dying art now”, Neerav remembers the names on tip of his tongue: Hl Tailors & Drapers, D Vaish and Sons, Sc Sharma and Co and Vedi tailor.
“Those days were not of readymade garments. These were the best tailoring shops. The tasteful went to purchase here. Now all is gone to oblivion,” added he.
From a neat palace to the crowded estate, people look at the historical and architectural marvel with a sigh now.
Subhash Chopra is an NRI who comes to the United Coffee House on his every visit to India. “I have been coming to this place three times a year for the last 60 years. The Connaught Place has deteriorated and gone down the hill. I used to enjoy my boyhood here. Every year, I come now and see some kind of change which cannot be called maintenance,” Chopra stresses.
Chopra points at the ugly corners of the corridors with paan stains. “I am afraid, CP should not become Old Delhi’s Chandini Chowk where business is on but the architecture looks horrible. It’s like that nightmare, one day we come and see CP crumbled down,” he said.
He said the idea of introducing e-rickshaws is a flawed one. “Rickshaws will make it worse. There is no security. Why not first work on facilitating the place with basics than jumping into illogical decisions,” he added.
The United Coffee House has a legacy which is cherished even by five generations. “This place was a den of politicians from Congress and different political parties. There would be group of 50 politicians at a time. While now smaller groups come, the footfall of its decades old guests still continues,” says Mathura Singh Rawat who joined as a waiter in 1994.
Some of the VIPs and foreigners get dropped outside the shops as it is the security hassle that would not allow them to walk through the area.
Young working crowd of the business and party hub have the same concerns.
“It is a big shock and crisis-like situation for us if cars are banned. We finish office and at least thrice a week end up in the restaurants and bars with friends late evening in the Inner Circle. There are so many unruly persons out there in the night. It is impossible for us to make through it. We are the girls who depend on Uber and Ola cabs at night. Tell us, will authorities guarantee our safetyIJ” asked Niharika Sharma (28), who works in a Bank.
The lovers of CP who visit it for different reasons worry and oppose the banning of cars while the traders fear deserted corridors.