The people who make Delhi walk

In Delhi, history does not sit behind glass. It spills into streets, lingers in dargahs, hides in forgotten havelis, and sometimes hums quietly inside a 14th-century tomb. To understand this city – layered, contradictory, alive – you must slow down.

Just enough to hear it. And walking does exactly that.At a recent panel of community leaders, when asked what Delhi must never lose, heritage walk leader Mohammad Anas replied, “Dilli ke kahaani sunane wale.” Numismatist and history enthusiast Shah Umair added, “Aur Dilli ke kahaani sunne wale.” Tales of City founder Abu Sufiyan completed the thought, “Addebaazi, jo Dilli ki soul hai, woh khatam nahi honi chahiye.”

The kisse, kahaaniya and kahaani sunne-sunane wale are the pulse of Delhi’s walk culture, keeping stories alive, they observed.

“Walking reveals the lived character of a city, its textures, sounds, stories and everyday traditions that cannot be experienced while you are in a vehicle,” says Sachn Bansal, chief explorer & founder of Delhi Walks, which curates experiences around vanishing havelis, the ishq, mushk and mausiki of Dargah Nizamuddin, alongside food-led exploration like Chaat Walks and Chai Conversations.

Delhi’s walk culture is powered by storytellers – historians, photographers and enthusiasts who interpret the city’s layers for others. Through their walks, monuments become portals, streets reveal forgotten histories, and everyday neighbourhoods turn into living archives.

Slow down to appreciate the details, textures “I am a core Dilliwali at heart, someone who has grown up listening to the city’s silences as much as its noise. My relationship with Delhi is deeply emotional; it’s a love built on familiarity, conflict and wonder,” says Nitika Arora of Darwesh Taleweavers, “Leading walks is my way of returning that love, by telling its stories with care and responsibility.”That emotional intimacy is what walking restores. In a car, Delhi becomes a blur of traffic lights and flyovers. On foot, it becomes textured, as you observe stone carvings (and frown upon the scribbled pillars), fading calligraphy, the smell of jalebi wafting out of an old shop.

Anoushka Jain, founder of Enroute Indian History, believes walking changes the scale of attention. “Walking allows you to observe even the smallest architectural details, things you would completely miss in a rickshaw or a car, especially in Old Delhi, where everything moves quickly.

Even if you explore just one area, as long as you do it on foot, you’ll remember it for life. It creates deeply intimate memories.” Walk leader Dushyant Singh Panwar adds, “When you move through a place on foot, you begin to notice its textures, its architecture, its stories and the rhythms of everyday life. In fact, some of my own discoveries in Delhi have happened this way. I discovered the Freemasons’ Grand Lodge on Janpath quite by chance while walking past it, and in a similar moment of serendipity, I stumbled upon the Judah Hyam Synagogue while walking from Khan Market towards Taj Mansingh.

Numismatist and history enthusiast Shah Umair aka Sikkawala, says, "Monuments are portals, not relics. In a single monument, I can narrate five different scripts, five different narratives, all intersecting within the same structure. When you stand inside these spaces, touch them and inhabit them, you connect with the lives of those who were there 500 years ago. In that moment, you become part of that continuum.

Delhi’s uniqueness lies in this continuity. Unlike many global historic cities preserved as static heritage zones, Delhi is lived in. Tombs, shrines and ruins exist within everyday life.

‘Walking is essential to understanding Delhi’“Fifteen years ago, people would ask us, ‘What is a heritage walk?’ Now they ask, ‘What is so special about your heritage walk?’ This shows how the audience has evolved,” quips Ramit Mitra, founder of DelhiByFoot, “Earlier, participants were often well-travelled globe trotters who had experienced heritage walks in different parts of the world and were looking for a similar way to connect with the city they were visiting or staying in.

Today, a much more varied set of people join us, from all walks of life and across age groups. Many people tell us at the end of a walk that they pass by these places every day but never knew there were so many stories and heritage waiting to be discovered. These walks are not about spilling facts or listing names, dates, kings, and queens, the aim is to create a composite understanding of political systems, the evolution of architecture, language, society, and administration.

Viewpoints of multiple authors and thinkers who have written about different periods and societies are shared during the walks.”

“Walking is essential to understanding Delhi,” adds Nitika, “Many of the subcontinent’s most decisive historical moments unfolded here, yet we pass their sites daily without recognition. Heritage walks slow people down, restore context, and re-establish a dialogue between the city and its inhabitants.”

And perhaps that is the real gift of walking, it turns the city from backdrop into conversation.A sense of belongingBeyond history and architecture, walks often create something unexpected — moments of connection, nostalgia and shared discovery among strangers exploring the city together. Panwar shares, “Many participants have told me that these deeply experiential explorations take them back to their childhood or youth, triggering emotional recollections that had been lost in the routine of everyday life.

These walks do not just inform people, they create joy and a sense of belonging.

” Walking also creates social intimacy. Anoushka notes that the five or ten minutes between two stops often lead to conversations, shared stories and even friendships. “As adults, we have so few spaces to make new friends. Walking creates that space,” she says.