What follows is the uncut version of an article i wrote recently about a hotel. the hotel is in Jangpura/Bhogal, a locality where I’ve been living for just over a year now. It’s not the usual CM style, but it says something about the city and its hidden histories, and its (even more hidden) traditions of hospitality -
ëSo did the Afghans start coming in after í79?í
ëWhy do you mention seventy nine?í Sukbir Singh Kabli shoots back.
Mr. Kabli is the proprietor of the Kabli Hotel, tucked away in the furthest corner of Masjid Road, Bhogal, and weíve been talking about his hotel, which began with three rooms being let out to guests during the first ITPO Expo in Pragati Maidan in í72. And which has seen guests of a wide varieties of nationalities from then on ñ Iraqis, Jordanians, Sudanese, Kenyans, and increasingly, from 1979 on, Afghanis.
ëWell, isnít that when the Russians invaded Afghanistan?í
ëYes, but the disturbances started in 1978, when Zaheer Shah, the king, left for France for medical treatment. His subordinate Dawood created a coup, and the Russians followed the next yearÖ.í
(note - SSK got his dates slightly wonky)
I look at the Russian military calendar on one wall, Guru Nanak on the other, and am taken aback by how much the owner of a small hotel in Delhi knows about the internal politics of Afghanistan, and the implications this has for International relations.
Perhaps I shouldnít be so surprised. Sukhbir Singh Kabliís father came to Delhi from Kabul (hence the name) in the 1930ís. His uncle was then one of the major contractors building New Delhi, working along with Sir Sobha Singh. He went on to become a major contractor in his own right, building the Palam Airport from the late forties. What is now Kabli Hotel, a palatial late colonial mansion with a large sheltered lawn at the back, dates back to the same era. Sukhbir remembers seeing the searchlight of Palam airport being visible from the roof, as it stabbed the night, across all those empty fields.
Most of the house was given out on rent when Sukhbir decided to mae three rooms into a guest house when the first Expo hit Delhi in 1972. ëEveryone thought I was crazy. How are you going to run a guesthouse in Bhogal when everyone wants to stay in Paharganj?í
This was the time when many foreign students started coming to India for education, from Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Sudan to Poona, Jabalpur, Indore, Delhi. According to Sukhbir students liked this area because it was more peaceful, unpolluted, and ëvery homelyí.
ëI was young, they were youngÖ I didnít need agents to get guests.í They used to sit in the lawns and talk, and he set up TT tables, a badminton court and weightlifting equipment for them, all of which is still around. Soon three rooms became six, the hotel was registered, and there was no looking back. Now there are eighteen rooms for guests, with the family retaining a small part of the mansion, including the room where Sukhbir was born. Though there isnít a restaurant in the hotel, there are facilities for guests to cook their own food.
ëNow their children are coming, even if less in number.í Since the seventies, countries like Jordan have opened their own quality universities. But the Afghans kept coming in, looking for refuge, medical treatment and economic opportunities away from their ravaged land. Did the name ëKablií help? Sukhbir just nods his head. That Bhogal, Jangpura and Lajpat Nagar became the nucleus for the Afghan refugee population also helped, perhaps.
ëPeople kept coming continuously from í79-80 to when the Indian embassy closed, after the Taliban took over. In the Taliban era, only the Hindus and Sikhs managed to come out of Kabul. But now they are coming again.í
He shows me the hotel registers, from May 2003. Since then, the hotel has seen 1217 Indians guests, and 1724 foreigners, mostly Afghans. ëIf I go with these registers to the OberoisÖ if anyone can beat me itís God.î The foreignerís register has whole pages of thumb prints, with Kabul addresses alongside.
Outside, next to the lawns, a group of Afgahns sits talking. They rise to greet Sukhbir, and he replies in fluent Dari. One of them is leaving for Kabul the next day.
ëIíll tell people in Kabul to come and stay only at this hotel.í
ëWhen we want to meet, we like to come and talk here only.í
Sukhbir happily translates.
ëIn the beginning, I used to speak to them in sign language. Now new guests sometimes get shocked at how fluent I am. Where did you learn our language? they ask. From you, I tell them.í
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