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Journalism of Courage
The sun-soaked steps of Kushak Mahal are strewn with neem leaves. Thirsty barbets twitch feebly in the summer air. Rumbling up to the sheltered hollow of Feroze Shah Tughlaqs hunting lodgenow part of the premises of Teen Murti Housethere is talk of the 18 canals that once criss-crossed Delhi,of Chor Bazaar in the shadow of the Lal Quila,of the British Capital that almost came up on the marshland that now stretches across Jahangirpuri.
They call themselves klodbwhich stands for knowing loving Delhi better. They joke that they would have attributed the name to Mad Magazine references to clods,but really they had only pre-empted being called something as preposterous as bhraman sangathan by a wacky friend. Twelve years ago,sitting in a gallery on a wintry Saturday afternoon,Ayush,Jaya Iyer and a handful of friends were mulling over their love of the citys markets,monuments and avenues,when they decided to bring urban explorers together by organising Sunday walks through a Google group. The next day saw 30-40 klodb members traipsing about Surajkund,a walk Ayushwho sends out a yearly calendar of walks to the 400-plus membersrepeated in November 2008.
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 Ridgeto the delight of some and the consternation of othersand 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 were all exploring the city together. Its a very loose group. We dont 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 childrens project at the library,doesnt wait for an answer. The bazaar comes up at the Ram Lila grounds in festival season. There are mountains of foodits 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 funthe halwa-kachori at Darya Ganj they sampled in January is a taste to remember,she says.
Klodb likes to go bird-watching in Delhis precious greens. In a couple of hours,you can spot 30-40 species of birdshornbills,sunbirds,cuckoos,magpiesright 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.
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