Chairs of heart. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is evening and ghazal singer Athar Hussain Khan is rendering ‘Chupke Chupke’ to a packed audience. The Delhi Walla is at Ghalib Academy in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti. The front…
Fan stories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Before the AC, before the cooler, there was the fan. It is probably still hanging there in your room — look up and check. Or maybe you have a pedestal fan…
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Never befriend a foreign correspondent. They always leave. Take Ellen Barry, the South Asia bureau chief of The New York Times. She arrived in our city four years ago and…
The season’s destination. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] No secret is being leaked if The Delhi Walla tells you to head to Old Delhi’s Jama Masjid area one of these Ramzan nights. I go there every year in…
The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Society women never accumulate years. The solidity of this universal truth stands severely strained this evening. Author Sadia Dehlvi is celebrating her birthday. She claims she is turning sixty. The…
Celebrating the English rose. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is possible to feel romantic about Delhi summer. Just hang out at the Rose Garden in Lodhi Gardens. This central Delhi park is famous for its tombs and…
The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds,…
The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Author Rakhshanda Jalil is famous for translating classic Urdu novels into English and for her writings on Delhi’s monuments. Even so, it is gross injustice to this…
The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She is in white. One rainy evening The Delhi Walla is at Union Chapel’s bar attending the launch of Arundhati Roy’s novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The bar is…
A quiet home. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The air is cold even though this is summer. Lichens are growing on the gravestones. It is evening and The Delhi Walla is walking through the old cemetery of St…
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