Memories of Delhi

Ishita Priyali

Dear Diary,

Hi! It’s been long no? I know, it’s just been so hectic while shifting, changing cities is hard diary, but I am glad we are back in Delhi. This is where I had my childhood, till of course we moved to Lucknow, which was nice too, but I’ve always missed Delhi for some reason. Perhaps it’s the nostalgic memories or maybe just having the best of my younger kiddy memories here. Anyway, today I visited a place which I guess I hadn’t visited forever.

Today I am going to introduce you to a special place of mine dear diary, Khan market. Lived in a lot of cities, but I guess this place had a charm of its own.

Situated in central Delhi, I remember always skipping down to this market after school as a kid. My mom being a senior bookworm introduced me to the first book cafe I would grow up to adore. Cafe Turtle- it’s a small cafe with tons of books on the first floor and a small sweet cafe upstairs. I think I brought  my first ‘Enid Blyton’  here ( well Barbie goes on an Adventure too, which I read about a hundred times , but let’s ignore that ) .I visited it again , and guess what it hasn’t change a bit , except  maybe you can spot way more foreigners now .

China Fare, another favorite restaurant of mine, it’s been in Khan market for a long time. My love for ‘Hot and sour’ soup started here, and of course my first Mc Donald happy meal (I can’t even count how many times I had thrown tantrums for that stupid happy meal), sadly that Mc Donald is no more, it’s been replaced by high end branded shops. Yes, my Khan market has changed dear diary. It used to be a simpler place in a simpler time.

I have countless memories of this market , from getting my first Barbie ( and yes the toy shop owner still remembers me , I was the tantrum throwing kid , who helped him make a lot of money , my poor poor parents ) to getting my haircuts done at Sunflower with Ms. Nancy who used to give me the Preity Zinta cut(hey she was all the craze then ) ,who’s surprisingly still there giving amazing haircuts 

The Famous Big chill chain of Delhi started here, I still swear by their desserts (No, for real people, if you haven’t visited the Big chill cakery, you missing’ on a lot man).

So, you see dear diary, even if people did move on to malls, I couldn’t ever forget my dear Khan market. It’s a place of my childhood dreams. A place where a younger Ishita still waits for her first Barbie 20 years ago.