In Gali Qasim Jan, Ghalib’s address shares space with De Cut Salon and a gaming zone

Gali Qasim Jan in Ballimaran carries Mirza Ghalib’s final address through a narrow run of salons, bakeries, cafés and gaming screens. Above the shops, signboards appear in English, Hindi and Urdu; electric wires stretch overhead, and monkeys move across the banners.

The street’s commercial names have their own character: De Cut Salon, Tip Top Gents Parlour, Grocers Gallery, Rafaa Cafe and Tamanna Guest House. At De Cut Salon, a sign advertising oil for baldness shares space with a red pair of scissors. Its owner also runs a small factory in New Seelampur producing anti-lice shampoo, anti-lice oil and toilet cleaner.

The surviving haveli

Ghalib spent his last years in a haveli on this Old Delhi lane and died there in 1869. Most of the building is gone; parts of it were converted into a coal store decades ago. What remains now houses a memorial museum, with the poet’s bust, books, quotations and objects connected to his life.

A framed observation attributed to Ghalib scholar Ralph Russell is displayed inside: “Had Ghalib written in English, he would have been the greatest poet of all times, amongst all languages!” Ghalib wrote in Urdu and Persian.

Outside, the older built fabric is often partly concealed by the street’s newer frontage. Above Al Faiz Bakery, a yellow facade retains projecting wooden beams, tall wooden screens and curved brackets supporting its overhang, though a large ice-cream sign covers much of it.

A name with no settled story

The origin of Gali Qasim Jan’s name is not clear among people on the street. One account links it to an aristocratic woman; another connects it with the nearby Masjid Nawab Qasim Khan and a Mughal-era resident of the Ballimaran area.

No street in the Walled City is named after Ghalib. But the lane where his funeral procession is believed to have begun remains a working Old Delhi street, its memorial tucked among the businesses and signs of the present day.