4 days Ago
She would talk to the patrons of her tea stall in a singsong manner. The tone of her voice would be in harmony with the languid movements of her hands that would fiddle almost imperceptibly between the chai pan and the chai glasses. But most of the times she would be quiet, listening to friendly familiars chat about her cart.
The cart would be parked outside the entry to the fashionable Hauz Khas Village, by the barricade. For a long time, the south Delhi locality has been the site of cafés, pizzerias and restaurants, as well as boutiques and curio shops. Some are garish, some are truly chic.
All of these cling like coattails to the great monument of Emperor Feroze Shah’s Tomb, which constitutes the area’s centerpiece. Her modest chai cart by the village’s entrance is almost a prologue to all the shiny lights that exist inside the HKV. Shanti Devi died more than a decade ago.
Over the years, the HKV too has changed. The village’s beautiful old school building is no more, the main temple has undergone a drastic facelift. And the village’s many residences that face the monument have transformed into multi-storied Airbnbs.
Shanti Devi has been forgotten. Her cart is still parked on the same old place, still serving chai. After her passing, the cart passed down to her two sons, who gave it on rent to one Inder.
This cold morning, the enterprising young man in grey pants and blue sweater is attending to the business, the warm sun shining upon Shanti Devi’s cart. Back in the old days, many people in the vicinity, including the gardeners of the adjacent Deer Park, used to be daily devotees of Shanti Devi’s ginger-flavoured chai. With family roots in Bihar, she lived in one of the back-lanes of HKV.
Many of her clients found in her a mother figure, and addressed her respectfully as Amma. Shanti Devi was a beloved of the labourers working in HKV’s many construction sites. She would reheat their homemade meals on her kerosene stove for free.
Shanti Devi’s two sons have day jobs elsewhere—one is a driver, another is an office peon. The man to whom they have rented out her cart is giving his own touches to legacy. Today, the cart not only serves delicious ginger-flavoured chai, but also lassi, bread pakoras, and Maggi noodles.
It is doing nice business, he says. The main lane of Hauz Khas Village ends at the tomb of Emperor Feroze Shah. The lane starts with what—metaphorically speaking—is this memorial to Shanti Devi.
Both landmarks continue to be alive in their own unique ways, continuing to shape HKV with their own respective essence. PS: This photo showing Shanti Devi and her cart is from around 2010..
