Not far from Gali Mir Qasim Jan, where Ghalib’s haveli is situated, is Sharif Manzil. Here the descendants of the famous hakim Sharif Khan live in comfort. Among the hakims of Sharif Manzil were such physicians as Mahmud Khan and his sons, of whom Hakim Ajmal Khan (in sketch) became almost a legend in his lifetime. It was he who established the Hindustani Dawakhana nearby and also the Tibbia College in Karol Bagh.

At Sharif Manzil, which had dropped the suffix haveli, came rajas and maharajas and even government officials, besides ordinary people to seek medical advice from Ajmal Khan and his two elder brothers. During the “Mutiny” of 1857, the Manzil was guarded by the troops of the Maharaja of Patiala, who patronised the hakims. Ghalib too escaped arrest and destruction of his haveli because the hakims sent some of the Patiala soldiers to guard it. When Ghalib’s younger brother died and a sort of curfew order was in force in the troubled city it was under the protection of these troopers that the dead body was taken for burial.

Lala Chunna Mal’s haveli in Chandni Chowk is a 120-room building with shops below it. The haveli is partly occupied by his descendants, while the others have locked their rooms and gone to stay in modern bungalows in the posh areas of New Delhi. Chunna Mal, who belonged to the Khatri community, was an influential banker of the Mughals and a friend of the Sharif Manzil hakims, but after the “Mutiny” he came into the good books of the British, who allowed him (on payment) to take control of some Mehrauli palaces and Fatehpuri Masjid, which was given back to the Muslims only in 1877, otherwise it was closed to the namazis.

Skinner’s haveli in Kashmere Gate area is now a ruin of its former self and occupied by transporters. It was at this haveli that Col Skinner used to hold his lavish parties in which the main attraction was his friend and British Resident at the Mughal court, William Frazer. The Christmas, New Year and Easter get-togethers here have passed into legend.

The havelis of Mirza Jahangir and fellow-royal Mirza Babar in Nizamuddin were magnificent buildings during the last days of the Mughals and still retain some of their old grandeur.