Living and loving Delhi

Over the last decade,in their dozens of expeditions across Delhi,klodb members have traded their Sunday sleep-ins for a morning amble,lost their way in the jungles of the Ridge—to the delight of some and the consternation of others—and even hitched a ride with a film crew once. Perhaps just 40-50 klodb members are active. At times whole families turn up for a walk,with children in tow; at others,there have been just two members walking. “We usually have someone to lead our walks,but we’re all exploring the city together. It’s a very loose group. We don’t even have a website,” says Ayush,a freelancer who is working on developing a resource centre for children at the Nehru Memorial Library.

Every walk typically ends with lunch,usually a local delicacy. “Have you eaten parantha halwa near Nizamuddin Dargah,and sharifa kulfi at Janak Bazaar?” Jaya,also involved with the children’s project at the library,doesn’t wait for an answer. “The bazaar comes up at the Ram Lila grounds in festival season. There are mountains of food—it’s right out of Arabian Nights,” she says. Fakhra Siddiqui,who has spent over 35 Sundays in the last five years walking with klodb,says the food walks have been a lot of fun—the halwa-kachori at Darya Ganj they sampled in January is a taste to remember,she says.

Klodb likes to go bird-watching in Delhi’s precious greens. “In a couple of hours,you can spot 30-40 species of birds—hornbills,sunbirds,cuckoos,magpies—right here in Teen Murti House,” says Jaya. A rivulet called the Kushal Nullah has dried up and the birds have nowhere to go to slake their thirst. Ajay Mahajan,a sporadic klodb walker and an environmentalist,expresses concern over the denudation of bird habitats in the city such as Bhalaswa Lake,which used to attract an impressive variety of migratory water birds. Jaya sums it up neatly,“Look at how the city is changing. What has become of it. But Delhi being Delhi,it will find its feet and recover as it always has.”