I was a college student back in 2014 and I used to accompany my dad to his office as I was being mentored on management and dealings he has in his everyday business.
He had a printing factory in Old parts of Delhi and it was mainly focussed on screen printing done manually by his employees.
He had one employee, lets call him Baba aged 56 who had worked with my grandfather and eventually my father and was still part of his workforce. It was his 20th year of working with my father.
Baba’s uncle was visiting him in New Delhi from their native village. My father being helpful asked the car park local guard if there are any cheap accomodations around.
The guard said there is an old building right in front of the car park which has been recently renovated. It is empty at the time and can easily be used for staying and he patched us up with the landlord.
Baba got a spare mattress from the area and set up a resting place for his uncle while he worked till late evening. The tired uncle in the afternoon asked if he can catch a nap for a few hours and baba said sure, while I work you should get some rest.
While going back home, myself baba and my father walked towards the car park only to find his uncle roaming the street. When we asked, his uncle said I couldn’t sleep post 5 as there was too much noise of wood clacking and something rolling and sudden clapping every now and then.
He suspected the children were playing inside the other side of the building. Although he did look around but could not see them.
My father immediately summoned the guard who recommended us that place for their staying. My dad said to the guard that you informed us that the building is vacant then why are kids playing inside the building.
The guard said the building js empty and enquired about what kind of sounds did you hear ?
When informed about the wood clacking and rolling and claps. The guard said the newly renovated building used to be an old diplomat building which was a construction of 1850s.
There was a revolt of Independence in India in 1857 because of the tyranny of British raj in India. The revolt was brutally crushed by the British, however they started to expand the beurocracy presence in India a lot more.
Post the independence revolt in New Delhi, British officers were called in from Britain to run beurocracies of New Delhi better. While they worked in old parts of New Delhi.
On their request a special bar was opened so they could socialise after work. This particular building was chosen as the bar and the british officers would often get together after work in this quarter which used to be their regular bar and here they would play game of billiards with one another.
Seems like the Englishmen are still playing billiards.