Leaving behind over-eager autowallas through a road that requires recarpeting, a fading blue sign board blandly announces the entrance to a village in south central Delhi – ‘Welcome To Humanyunpur’. Winding into a narrow alley, it is like any other urban village in north India – small houses jostle for space, roads not generous enough to let people and vehicles move smoothly, children playing cricket as veiled women go about their household chores. But ‘looks can be deceptive’ and Humanyunpur lives the proverb, at least culturally.
Few metres into the gali, and a whole new world opens up like a mysterious chamber, and for a moment one forgets the intimidating mesh of electric wires hanging rather ominously over head. On one corner is Asha – a ‘one stop shop for North-eastern eateries’. Little ahead is a tattoo shop, a salon with photos of K-Pop artists, few more small restaurants that specialise in Chinese, Tibetan, Assamese, Naga and Thai food, not to forget the Dilli’s biggest identifiable index for the Northeast – momos.
Next are the clothes shops – Bangkok Street, Runway Fashion, Exquisite – with mannequins dressed in Western wear, all imported from Nepal, Thailand and China. Not to miss the Korean DVD shop that has neatly stacked music, movies and teleserials from the East Asian neighbour, and many other hole-in-the-wall shops that narrate the tale of a different culture, breathing and surviving in the Jat-dominated village.
During the day and even late night hours, girls with colourfully dyed hair, wearing ganjis and denim shorts or short dresses, can be seen roaming, laughing, and sometimes even lighting up a cigarette with boys who are equally fashionably tattooed and pierced.
Along the route is where the dichotomy of culture, the ‘different culture’ becomes palpable. One sees women in salwar kameez bustling around and dhoti-kurta clad men smoking hookahs, outside one-storey big houses or kothis unabashedly showing off the real owners of Humanyunpur – Choudhary Hukum Singh, Choudhary Het Ram, Chaudhary Joginder Phogat. “We have been living here for more than 50 years now. Earlier, it was only us – the Jats, but now people from the Northeast live here,” says Ved Pal Singh, a landlord. The residents say they have welcomed the Northeasterners, helping them create a sense of belonging in an alien city. “We have set up PGs for them, and even rented out our shops for them to run their business,” Bhoop Singh, another resident says.
When Riju Sharma got the opportunity to open an eating joint in Humanyunpur last year, she knew she would be serving Assamese cuisine. An Assamese herself, she has been living in Delhi for the past 11 years and has seen friends and relatives move here for a sense of cultural familiarity. “Many people from Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Assam, now prefer to live here when they land in Delhi.
The place is close-knit, and offers the community the comfort to survive in familiar surroundings,” she says. Vishnu, Manager at Freedom Corner, one of the first shops to come up in the vicinity, agrees, “I’ve been working here for the last 10 years since we opened, and have seen it grow into a tiny North-eastern hamlet in the last few years.” The inhabitants are mostly students or young professionals, who generally work in call centres, salons, restaurants. Various northeastern dialects float around, stamping the transformation Humanyunpur has undergone. Even grocery shops stock bamboo shoots, raja mirch, black rice, pasi, santamise – all Northeast staples.
But how do two diametrically opposite cultures – the conservative Jats and the perceived ‘Western’ inclined Northeasterners coexist? The Jats have accepted that the ‘guests’ are the cash cows for them, so the acceptance of their way of life does come, but begrudgingly. “We do not agree with their food or the fact that they have live-in relationships. Par paisa wkisko bura lagta hai ji [But who doesn’t like money]? As long as they are paying whatever we demand, we look the other way,” Mahender Singh, a general store owner. The ‘guests’ are happy too. Raingam Monsang, a resident of Humanyunpur since 2011 says, “They tell us we can party, drink and even the opposite sex is allowed to visit. So long as we pay the rent on time and don’t cross each other’s way. Sounds about fair, doesn’t it?”
