Turkman’s midnight chai

A small late-night chai shack by a Mughal-era gateway that very few people know about

Very few good folk know about this chai place. It’s arguably one of Delhi’s most atmospheric spots for hanging out with a glass of tea.

This unnamed stall just beside the historic Turkman Gate is unfamiliar to most city flâneurs, because, well, it doesn’t exist during the day.

It opens only at night. Managed by red-haired Mohammed Sirajuddin, the stall has loyalists ranging from rickshaw pullers to local gossips. They’ll sit on a bench killing the night hours with rounds of fragrant chai and heaps of small talk: politics and Bollywood mostly, but also far less stressful neighbourhood intrigues.

Ever so often a customer will be lounging in front of the stall getting his head champimassaged with oil by a pavement masseur. Other patrons might well arise from the bench, walk up to the Gate and thoughtfully kneel their back against its 17th Century stone surface while dwelling on their chai-triggered ideas.

This late night, the wedding banquet hall across the street has long closed. The last paratha cart too has gone. And yet the street is teeming with people walking alone or in groups, and some of them instinctively turn to this discreet stall, half hidden under the shadow of the historic gateway. The stall right now is circled by a gang of neighbourhood guys, almost all glued onto their mobile screens.

“The stall was founded by my father (Zameeruddin) some 50 years ago,” explains Mr Khan, adding that “back then the stone gateway wasn’t locked up like a monument and people would freely walk through it.” Visit by midnight to experience the stall’s life, as well as the chai brewed on a coal-powered angeethi.