Today, most Indians refer to the entire town as New Delhi, but the old city remains a world apart. It is poorer, far more crowded, and in an overwhelmingly Hindu nation it is dominated by Muslims. Life here revolves around the city's great mosque, and time is tracked by calls to prayer.
It's also a place where pigeon handling remains an art form, and where, in a few small circles, great handlers are still revered.
Allaudin is, he himself insists, the greatest of them all.
He has a veritable pigeon empire, with perhaps a dozen coops scattered across the neighborhood. He has breeding coops, and coops for sick birds. He has coops full of pigeons from India and Afghanistan and Iran and places he can't even name. He has workers to help care for them.
Ask to explain his obsession and he laughs: ``I do this for love.''
But some of the appeal is clear.
On the streets of old Delhi, Allaudin is known as a successful businessman.
But among the kabooter baz of old Delhi and in the skies above it, he's an emperor.
RSS