A trip to the all-night Ramzan bazaar near Jama Masjid
It’s midnight,and half of Delhi is fast asleep. The other half seems to be packed into the narrow lanes that connect Turkman Gate with Jama Masjid. This maze,overhung with electrical wires and overrun by cycle rickshaws,houses Old Delhi’s famous Ramzan bazaar.
The market comes to life during the holy month and caters to the faithful who have been fasting through the day. The buzz begins around iftar,the breaking of the fast in the evening,and continues till sehri,the early morning meal before roza.
It’s not as if the Walled City ever rests,but sunlight plays up its squalor during the day. Night is kinder — the yellow bulbs give Bazaar Matia Mahal and Bazaar Chitli Qabar a carnivalesque atmosphere. One witnesses the other side of abstinence — the feasting and the festivity — and even a non-Muslim visitor will be sucked into this celebration.
Both sides of the lanes erupt with shops. The majority sell food and a foodie happily realises that when one is fasting from sunrise to sunset,calories acquire a religious connotation. The air you breathe in is packed with the aroma of kebabs. Kebabs and massive pieces of fish are on offer — fleshy,juicy and full of flavour,the way only street food can look. There’s a kebab stall every few steps,like milestones to judge how far you can resist a bite due to hygiene concerns. Nonetheless,the hottest-selling item is possibly milk.
Milk? “To be drunk cold,hot or with a parantha or khajla,” says a shopkeeper. He stirs milk in a life-sized kadhai and ladles it into earthen pots. Then,he scoops out two inches of malai from the kadhai,as topping — energy for the day. People melt into the crowd carrying these glasses. Khajla,a round bread,is the other essential. “It’s soaked in ghee,is eaten with milk and keeps you strong through the day,” adds a youngster.
In a bakery close to Karim’s,Izmis Mohammed is taking out biscuits from an oven. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years. We can make about 200 biscuits at a time and they all sell out,” he says. There’s a constant crowd outside his shop,called Benaam,because it has no name.
Everybody’s doing something here — eating,bargaining,catching up with friends or ordering the Eid ka joda. The burqa and salwar-kameez outlets,however,are less active than the food stalls. This is true even when scores of women descend on the bazaar after midnight. “We’ve finished with iftar and feeding the family dinner and are now here to shop,” says Shabana Kalim.
Outside the midnight bazaar,Delhi appears deafeningly silent. Is it because,in few other places can one shop and savour from dusk to dawn with a religious zeal?
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