It’s perhaps a good time to be nostalgic about cities. As they expand to become unmanageable and chaotic, looking back and zeroing in on some bright spots can bring in some succour. Add to this our super hectic lives and limited means of entertainment, and there emerges a desire to do something different.
Walking groups then, that offer you an insight into the city, its lesser known facts, fits into the story too well. And that’s why we have so many of them around in the Capital today and their numbers are only rising. “People want to do more interesting things. I think Dilliwallah today is open to different cultural experiences,” says Himanshu Verma of 1100 walks, which he began in 2011. There are about 27 kind of walks Himanshu conducts through the year in different parts of the city. Besides some hugely popular ones that are often repeated like sari walks (which has earned him the title of “The Sari Man of India”), food walk in Old Delhi and baoli walks, Himanshu has also designed some experimental and fun walks like blue and green walk and barsaati walk etc which are all priced between Rs.1500 and Rs 2500. “I don’t focus on historical facts that much. The whole idea is to define heritage in a more inclusive manner and offer more offbeat experiences to people,” adds Himanshu, an art curator who runs a multi-disciplinary art organisation.
In 2009 when Himanshu started doing walks, he doesn’t remember several players in the field well-known historian Sohail Hashmi’s popular Delhi Heritage Walks and INTACH walks. From then to now, the space is abuzz with many more in the fray and of different kind. There are birding walks, Delhi Metro Walks, food walks, area specific walks like Let’s Walk Gurgaon and pay what you like walks, a model which is quite popular in Europe.
Darwesh is even more different from the rest for they so innovatively integrate the element of theatre into their walks. Led by four women — Yuveka Singh, Meghali Roy, Madhavi Menon and Nitika Arora, Darwesh began in 2013 when Yuveka quit her job with NGO Magic Bus and co-founded it with Meghali. The theatrical part of it derives from Darwesh’s philosophy to make history come alive and create an experience for people.
“Storytelling is an important part of our walks but we then take it to another level. So even if you have come to that spot earlier, what you will witness and experience with us would be completely different. A sufi walk in Mehrauli is concluded with an act on Bahadur Shah Zafar; or a trail at Tughlakabad ends up with a performance about Muhammad bin Tughlaq,” explains Yuveka.