Main Bazar

This guide to Main Bazar in Delhi's Paharganj traces the street from Emperor Shah Jahan's 1638 grain market, Shahganj, through Partition's refugee waves in 1947 to the Hippie Trail travelers who arrived from Europe via Afghanistan two decades later. It follows one family's roadside dhaba, opened in 1928 by Nand Lal Sharma, through three generations into the hotel his grandson runs today. Listen for the Russian dishes still on its menu, a holdover from Soviet-era travelers.