The Rucksack Diaries

Narrow snaking lanes, crowded with men, women, transgenders of all age. The crowd moves at its own pace on both the sides, stopped often by an eager shopkeeper trying to sell his wares or asking one to make arrangements to feed the hungry and poor at his establishment. One moves through an array of sellers, laying out their wares on the road or on carts, selling gifts for children at home or scarfs and caps to cover one’s head in obeisance to Nizamuddin Auliya, a 13th century Sufi Saint.
The place is named after the Auliya and houses many Mughal era buildings such as the Humayun's tomb and famous eateries and attar or perfume shops. Some of the eateries, often hidden in a nook of a by lane, are as old as the place itself and are famous for their mouth watering delicacies.
Moving past the tall cream building, with its Persian windows, the Ghalib Institute for promotion of Urdu language one has to take the right turn to arrive at the Urs Mahal where the death anniversary of the Auliya is celebrated as the day he became one with his beloved and creator. Next to it is the tomb of Mirza Ghalib, an 18th century Persian and Urdu poet.
As one enters the Dargah complex, the lane gets narrower with shops selling flowers, incense, chaddars (decorated sheets to cover the shrine) and attars. One can leave the shoes at any of these shops or with an old man at the corner.
Inside, one first comes across the tomb of Amir Khusro, the favourite disciple of Auliya and a royal poet, and then the Auliya's as he loved Amir so that he had wished people pay their homage first to him. The beauty of Nizamuddin is that even in the midst of the crowd and din one finds peace as the shrine is brightly lit and soft Sufi devotional and love songs are played by qawwals (a group of musicians and singers of devotional Sufi songs) who had been playing music for the Auliya for generations.
Even for the occasional visitor the experience, of having people of various religion and nationality, economic and social background, believers and the curious onlooker, come together as a sea of humanity, becomes an event to remember. The reason could be many and diverse but Nizammudin has something for all. For the history lover, for the devotee, the foodie, the shopaholic, the music lover and the traveler at heart. One can find the reason venturing in its many by lanes.