Centuries before celebrated Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib found a house on rent in Chandni Chowk’s Ballimaran, where he eventually breathed his last in 1869, the lane was home to rowers and their kashtis. The men did not use oars as the water in the canal nearby was shallow; they instead used a balli or long bamboo poles. “Those who rowed these boats were called ballimaar and where they lived came to be known as Ballimaran,” said historian Sohail Hashmi. Advertising According to Shama Mitra Chenoy, associate professor of History at Delhi’s Shivaji College, “One can only speculate that Ballimaran came up during Feroz Shah Tughlaq’s time in the 14th Century. The Tughlaqs were known for the canals they built; there is evidence that a canal was formed from the northern extremity of the city he built called Firozabad and probably went up to where the Red Fort stands now, and then into the Yamuna.” Chenoy, who wrote Shahjahanabad, A City of Delhi, 1638-1857, said that after this reference, Ballimaran resurfaced in historical texts only in the 19th Century. “Noblemen lived here, names of havelis are mentioned, there were sellers of resham too in Ballimaran,” said Chenoy. Intrinsically tied to the history of Ballimaran is the story of the Sharif Manzil — a haveli built in the early 18th Century, spread across three acres, and inhabited by Khandan-e-Sharifi or the Hakims of Delhi. Advertising Today, only a portion of the sprawling haveli is home to the descendants of the family, while the rest has turned into shops. “We moved here from Agra. Back then, it spread from Kucha Rehman to Kuppe Wali Gali. As it was being built, the area was already called Ballimaran,” said Masroor Ahmed Khan (73), who now lives in the haveli with 19 rooms. In fact, the Hakims rented out a haveli nearby to Ghalib, which is now a museum. “He took refuge at Sharif Manzil during the revolt of 1857 as the Maharaja of Patiala sent his troops to protect Ballimaran where the Hakims and Ghalib lived,” said Khan. A newspaper printed out of the haveli reported Ghalib’s death in 1869. It was at Ballimaran’s Sharif Manzil that freedom fighter and one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia, Hakim Ajmal Khan, lived. “In this living room sat Gandhi ji, Maulana Azad, and it was here that Subhas Chandra Bose stayed the night once,” said Khan. As he spoke about growing up in Ballimaran, Khan remembered an urban legend associated with the area. “Once, there were too many cats in Chandni Chowk. The ‘cat killers’ also lived here, and the area came to be called Ballimaran because they killed billi. There is no truth to it, however,” said Khan, with a laugh.

Stay updated with all the Delhi Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.