India, Sept. 5 -- As part of the Walled City encyclopaedia

Lakshmi is standing at her doorway, talking. This is her break between two shifts. She cooks vegetarian food twice a day in a large mansion not far from here. Her mother-in-law worked there before her. After she died, Lakshmi took her place.

For now, Lakshmi is at home, in a courtyard at the farthest end of Gali Godoya in Old Delhi. She explains that this is a katra, a courtyard ringed with residences. In earlier times, she says, people of the same profession lived in a katra. Not anymore.

Lakshmi is affable and talks easily to someone she's meeting for the first time. This evening, her husband is sitting a few feet away on the courtyard floor, mending their grandchild's toy. H...