India, July 11 -- Old Delhi's Farash Khana begins with two stories. Both try to explain how the street got its name. One account says the locality was settled by masons who laid the stone floors of the Red Fort. By this account, Farash is a corruption of farsh, the Urdu word for floor. But venerable Akhlaq Ahmad of RK Tailors, a Farash Khana establishment, offers an alternative account. According to him, the locality was home to men who carried ceremonial torches in the Red Fort. The torchbearer, he says, was called a farrash. So here we are, caught in a love triangle of two stories and one name. As for the second word in Farash Khana, khana means place in Urdu, though it also means food and to eat.

The rest of the street too is a saga o...