Chandni Chowk was once the kind of neighborhood that people spoke about with awe. Built in the 17th century by Emperor Shah Jahan, it reflected the wealth of the once mighty Mughal empire, quickly becoming one of India’s most desirable districts, where the rich and powerful resided in fashionable mansions. Today, this corner of the historic walled city Old Delhi has a different vibe, attracting visitors to a lively street food scene. Architectural reminders of its former glory are still visible, but the swanky homes of the wealthy are no more, many converted to hotels or other businesses, their occupants long gone. Not Ajay Pershad, though. Aged 80 but still going strong, Pershad sits in the courtyard of his grand 120-room ancestral mansion, almost the last man standing of Chandni Chowk’s old guard, holding on to the splendor of a bygone age. “It is the only living mansion on the historic street of Chandni Chowk,” says Pershad, a descendant of Chunna Mal, a moneylender and businessman who built the home way back, according to an inscribed golden slab inside the building’s hallway, in 1864. Some 160 years later, although Pershad is clinging to his forebears’ legacy, much of the glamor of preceding centuries has vanished. Most of the mansion’s rooms are shuttered and unused. The antiques inside them are gathering dust. Ajay Pershad sits in the courtyard of his grand 120-room ancestral haveli (traditional house). Ajay Pershad sits in the courtyard of his grand 120-room ancestral haveli (traditional house). Aishwarya S. Iyer/CNN And out of Chunna Mal’s 32 heirs, only Pershad and his family of 10 remain. And, he says, he’s alone in wanting to keep the place. “The family is planning to sell, but I am against it,” he says. “I have been trying to bring them on the same table.” Pershad says he’s hoping to ensure one of the only privately owned mansions in the area is not converted into a hotel. Speaking of the glory of the street, Khan says how there used to be an octagonal pool that would reflect the moon in its water and sparkle. Hence the name Chandni Chowk: ”Moonlit Crossing.” Back in the days of Mughal empire, which was founded in the 16th century and grew to control much of the Indian subcontinent before dwindling and being dissolved in 1857, India’s cultural and architectural heritage gained numerous iconic structures. In Delhi, these include the Humayun’s Tomb, Jama Masjid [mosque] and the Old Fort. The neighboring city of Agra got the Taj Mahal. Designated one of the seven wonders of the world, it draws in thousands of visitors each day. And then there was Chandni Chowk, built as a part of Emperor Shah Jahan’s new capital Shahjahanabad – or Old Delhi as it later became. Many parts of this street were destroyed when the people revolted against British occupation in 1857. The British crushed the rebellion, thereby ending Mughal rule in Delhi and marking the beginning of the British Raj. However, mansions like the one belonging to Chunna Mal’s family were untouched. “Chunna Mal was pro-British. We enjoyed a lot of privileges because of it,” Pershad explains. His ancestor, he says, was appointed the first municipal commissioner of Old Delhi. Today, Pershad’s home is symbolic of both the glory of the 17th century and how it is changing or being forgotten today. People come from miles away to pray at the Shri Digambar Jain Lal Temple (red) and the Hindu Gauri Shankar Temple (orange) at Chandni Chowk. People come from miles away to pray at the Shri Digambar Jain Lal Temple (red) and the Hindu Gauri Shankar Temple (orange) at Chandni Chowk. Aishwarya S. Iyer/CNN The moonlit crossing The gloomy spaciousness inside the sprawling mansion also stands in stark contrast to the modern day Chandni Chowk Road outside. The district’s oldest street, right in the heart of Delhi begins at the entrance of the Mughal-era Red Fort, where the annual Independence Day flag hoisting is overseen by India’s prime minister, and stretches 1,400 yards to the 17th century Fatehpuri mosque. Bustling with businessmen, cycle rickshaws, and shoppers who’ve come in to buy clothes and jewelry or eat the mouth-watering food, it draws In thousands of tourists and visitors each day For Rameen Khan, the founder of the company City Tales which organizes heritage walks and tours in and outside Delhi, this road’s importance extends beyond its material offerings. “In its nooks and corners this street has preserved over three and a half centuries of India’s history. It hides in plain sight, unnoticed and unappreciated, but a testament to the unfolding of India’s past,” he says. According to Khan, an octagonal pool that would sparkle with reflections of the moon, once stood here. Hence the name Chandni Chowk, meaning ”Moonlit Crossing.” “Since it was the grandest part of the stretch, it is fitting that the entire stretch is named after it,” Khan adds. Indian exhibitors hang wall clocks for sale during the ‘Punjab International Trade Expo (PITEX) in Amritsar on December 6, 2018. – Exhibitors from Turkey, Egypt, Thailand, Afghanistan and other Asian countries are displaying their products during the fair which runs from December 6-10. (Photo by NARINDER NANU / AFP) (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP via Getty Images) Related article How India got stuck in its own unusual time zone Knotting history and faith It isn’t only multiple eras of history that intertwine here in this sliver of Old Delhi. Several houses of worship co-exist in Chandni Chowk: a Jain temple, a Hindu temple, a mosque, a Sikh shrine, and a Baptist church. “This shows the ability of India to be able to peacefully cohabit as a secular country, despite its many challenges,” Khan says. Sheetal Saxena, 23, a housewife and local resident, says there continues to be good bonhomie between different communities here. “The fact that this place accommodates anyone is what makes it truly emblematic of India,” she says. These religious centers are also tourist attractions, notably the reddish-pink Digambar Jain Lal Temple. It is revered by those who follow the Indian religion Jainism, which emphasizes non-violence and a strict diet that eschews garlic and onions. Originally built in the 1600s, the temple was renovated with red sandstone in 1878, giving it the nickname the Red Temple. At a time when the Mughal empire was losing its grip on the country, a nobleman in its army built a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva in the 1760s. “Other groups were becoming stronger now. You can see that in the construction of a temple so close to the Mughal throne,” Khan says. On the other side of the road is the Central Baptist Church, which dates to the British colonial era. According to Khan, the original Christian church was destroyed in the revolt of 1857, then later rebuilt. But travelers who know where to look can head inside, where they’ll find inscriptions of prayers and commandments inscribed in Urdu on golden-colored slabs. Rickshaw pullers rest along a street in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi, India on August 6, 2023. Rickshaw pullers rest along a street in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi, India on August 6, 2023. Pradeep Dambarage/Nurphoto/Getty Images Another symbol of the declining Mughal empire lies in the Golden Mosque, where Persian emperor Nader Shah ordered the plunder of Delhi in 1793. Next to it, a Sikh shrine memorializes where one of the 10 gurus who founded the faith was murdered. It was a police station during the Mughal era. After the Mughals lost their power, the Sikhs built their temple – called a gurudwara – in the spot. For Khan these buildings are a reflection of the different eras that the neighborhood has witnessed. Finding a way forward Locals say Chandni Chowk’s popularity increased recently when Delhi’s local government unveiled a new look, banning all traffic apart from rickshaws. New red sandstone walkways were laid down to create a pedestrian zone and more trees planted. Some say there’s still much work to be done. Dilip Saxena, a local retiree who has spent his whole life living nearby, says that beyond the main thoroughfare, the neighborhood is blighted by dirt, monsoon floods and building fires. He says its status as a residential area is being eroded. “When I was growing up here there were 13 homes in the area around my home. Now there are only two. People have sold off their property as commercial establishments and moved out,” he said. One of those commercial establishments is a new mall 100 yards off Chandni Chowk. “With the mall coming there is a concern that the old-world charm of this area may be forgotten or altered over time. As generations keep coming, lesser and lesser people will know about this history and that is a concern,” says Saxena. “Will they stop at this mall, or build many more? Who knows?” he asks. For Ajay Pershad too, this development is for the visitors, not for those who live here. “You can ban vehicles, but what do we residents do during medical emergencies?” Despite that, Pershad is certain he will not depart. “This is the rich history of my family right here. I cannot even think of leaving.”

Oprah Winfrey was the first Black woman Whitney Trotter saw on TV –– and the first television figure having conversations that affected young Black girls like her.

But aside from those groundbreaking TV moments, interviews and pioneering successes, Trotter — now a registered dietitian — remembers that Winfrey was known for something else: the size and shape of her body.

One moment in 1988 made a mark on so many people when Winfrey went on her nationally syndicated show pulling a little red wagon with 67 pounds of animal fat, the equivalent to the amount of weight she had lost at the time. Immediately people were watching to see when she gained it back, how she would lose it again, and — more recently — if she would use a medication such as GLP-1 to try to make her body smaller.

While such public attention is specific to celebrities, the scrutiny Winfrey faced at every step of her body’s changes is something many people encounter, said Dr. Alexis Conason, a psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist in New York City.

Such scrutiny is the product of diet culture, the influences and messages that affect how we eat, based on cultural pressure to attain an ideal body type, experts say.

“That sense of wanting to tear people down, and especially reducing women to their appearance and pointing out their flaws as a way of like taking away power, I think have been a really long-standing tactic used in the media,” Conason said. “And I think it continues (to this day).”

Criticism of Winfrey’s body shows just how much of a losing game diet culture is, even if you are one of the most influential people in the world, experts say.

On her talk show in 1988, Winfrey brought out a red wagon full of 67 pounds of animal fat — the equivalent to the amount of weight she had lost at the time.

Lose, gain or maintain ­­–– the scrutiny continues

Many people have felt diet culture’s pressure to lose weight, but often the expectation is that the scrutiny will lift once that happens. And often, it just isn’t the case.

Whether maintaining, gaining or losing weight, many clients come to New York City dietitian Kimmie Singh saying that they feel like their body is under surveillance, she said.

“It’s something that’s so normalized — from the magazines but then also from talking about people at the dinner table,” Singh said, “or people congratulating the person that has lost weight.”

Even if you reach the body size that society deems ideal, the goalposts move to pressure you to achieve the right body shape, said Trotter, who is also a doctor of nursing practice and psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner in Austin, Texas.

The myths of weight and size

Attached to this focus on other people’s bodies are two harmful ideas: that weight is within a person’s control and that the size of a body is connected with moral value, Conason said.

“There’s a cultural narrative that it is morally inferior to be in a larger body,” she said. “There’s all those associations with fatness of laziness, people not being as smart, people not being motivated, not caring about themselves, not being disciplined.”

People feel more justified in discriminating and being cruel if they believe those associations are true — particularly if they think a person’s body size is in their control, Conason said.

“It all comes back to the myth of personal responsibility around weight and body size, that if you just work hard enough, you can achieve this cultural ideal of thinness and be accepted,” she added.

Such a view about weight and acceptance is not true, said Dr. Chika Anekwe, obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

While a segment of the population is biologically “resistant” to obesity, others can make major changes to their lifestyles and still not be able to maintain weight loss, Anekwe said. And with increasing changes in access to food, exercise and health care, people’s weight is becoming more out of their individual control, she added.

2019 meta-analysis showed that more than 80% of weight loss is regained after five years.

“If people could just choose their body weight, size or shape,” Anekwe said, “we wouldn’t have such a booming diet culture industry.”

‘Moral’ ways to lose weight

Even when people are perceived to be losing weight, they may still be losing the diet culture game.

The popularization of GLP-1 medications, which were originally prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes but now are often used for weight loss, has popularized the idea that a smaller body is a matter of choice, Conason said. She noted that it also adds another way society can scrutinize how people lose weight.

“There’s no other class of drugs where people want to violate HIPAA as much as they do the GLP-1, because it’s like, ‘Oh, I gotta know,’” Trotter said, referring to the federal law restricting the release of medical information.

In the hierarchy of what society perceives as the most “moral” ways to lose weight, medication ranks toward the bottom, said Bri Campos, a body image coach based in Paramus, New Jersey.

“Unless you are of the 5% of people who can go into a caloric deficit for a long period of time (more than five years), increase your movement and keep weight off, your weight loss doesn’t count,” she said.

Such reactions happened with Lizzo, Kelly Clarkson and Winfrey –– their bodies looked smaller, and the speculation poured in about how they did it.

“There’s so much like mistrust towards fat people in general,” Singh said. “People want a gotcha moment with fat people to say, ‘Oh, like, we caught you with your hand in the cookie jar.’”

People want to catch and shame others for not following a lifestyle that denies them pleasure, Conason said. Some can also face criticism about using weight-loss methods that society deems lazy, Singh said.

Whether it’s going on some fad diet, taking a GLP-1 or getting weight loss surgery, “it just speaks to how we can never be enough in the eyes of diet culture,” she added.

The point may be to make people feel smaller

Since most people can’t get societal approval for their existing bodies, can’t maintain long-term weight loss by restrictive dieting or face criticism for using other methods of losing weight –– what is the point of the diet culture game then?

One idea is that diet culture keeps a check on power.

Many successful men are judged by their accomplishments rather than their appearance, but the same does not always go for the rest of the population, Conason said.

Winfrey is one of the most influential people in the world and still has had her body scrutinized — a reminder to powerful women that their body size, clothing, hairstyle and adherence to beauty standards will stay a priority, she added.

Campos said she has women, transgender and nonbinary people who come to her for coaching on their body image. They are in the fields of science, technology and law or who have graduated from top universities and still feel their accomplishments don’t matter as much as how others perceive their bodies, she said.

“We know this because of Oprah, because of the Kardashians, because of all these people who are continuing to pursue Westernized beauty, that there is no top where you get to safety,” Campos added. “There will always be something else. If it’s not your weight, it is going to be aging. There’s always something.”

Stop talking about other people’s bodies

Undoing the influence of diet culture from your world is no small feat, but it can start with becoming more aware of how it affects you, Conason said.

“The more that we can understand what diet culture is, what weight stigma is, how it shows up in our lives, the more we’re able to kind of observe it and question it, rather than just kind of unconsciously taking it all in and absorbing it,” she said.

It is also important to recognize that other people’s bodies should never be a subject of conversation –– even if you think talking about their weight loss is a compliment, Conason added. And talking about celebrities and their weight doesn’t make such observations any better.

Comments and criticisms you make about other people’s bodies also influence the way you feel about your own body, Conason said.

“Oprah probably doesn’t hear what I talk about with my friends or on social media or things like that, but like people in my life do a lot of times over,” she said. “It’s hurting the everyday people in our lives who might be in a larger body, who may or may not be taking a GLP-1, who may or may not be struggling with an eating disorder.”

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