GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A special camp for wrestlers.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]It’s Adidas meets the akhara, dumbbell meets the dand-baithak and rugby meets Rohtak. The other day I stumbled into a settlement of wrestlers-in-training, just off the Ring Road, just next to Majnu ka Tila gurdwara. If you aspire to be a champion wrestler, go, join it. It's free. You'll only have to pay for your food bills.I must add that the timing of my discovery was perfect. It was the week after Delhi wrestler Mr Sushil Kumar won bronze in the Beijing Olympics. But what I saw was beyond belief: around 50 young wrestlers from

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Gluttony at Delhi's priciest stand-alone restaurant.[By Mayank Austen Soofi]One rainy Friday night, early in August, 2008, when our Indian army was killing 15-year-old Kashmiris at Sri Nagar's Idgah ground and when our fellow Indians were beating Kashmiri truck drivers in the highway in Jammu, we decided to dine at Diva, Delhi's most expensive Italian restaurant, owned and run by Delhi's celeb chef Ms Ritu Dalmia.Before we even had the chance to admire the wine cellar or the candles, the focaccia arrived. The slightly oily starter made no impression on my dining companion, a friend from Berlin, who continued looking glum. Nah, it wasn't Kashmir.

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Searching for a perfect Lutyens’ living room.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]I'm young. I too have a dream. I want to be rich, famous and a VIP. In other words, I want to lord over a Lutyens' bungalow. Meanwhile can someone tell me how cool are the taste of hi-fi people who live inside those pretty white houses? How is their living room? How thick are their curtains? How is the view outside from their frosted glass windows? How cold is their air conditioner? How many paintings hang on their walls? How many carpets deck their floor? (Or are there Italian marbles?) How many

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A response to The Delhi Walla's article on Peg N Pints.[By Priya Sen; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]I chanced upon Mayank Austen Soofi's piece on Pegs N Pints, "Thank God It's Tuesday - Report From a New Delhi Gay Bar", and had to read it.Pegs N Pints is a place close to my heart. I love it, I hate it, I want them to change their music, I laugh at its location in Lutyens' Delhi, and I'm delighted that it shares a compound with a wedding venue (You should go see the queens and aunties flaunting their stuff.)It's a dive for god's sake. Who cares

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Pakistan's former Prez should return to his hometown Delhi.[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; photographer can not be traced]Amid speculation that is exiling former Pakistani President Mr Pervez Musharraf's to different corners of the world (US, UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia), The Delhi Walla proposes that he should come back to Delhi, the city of his birth. Neher wali haveli in Daryaganj's Saad Ullah could be the ideal locale for Musharraf to set up his retirement home. It's the place where he spent the first four years of his life. In these solemn times, those childhood memories would provide him succour. Recently, an old cobbler in Daryaganj

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.On St Stephen's, Delhi's most prestigious college.[By Shashi Tharoor; the picture was taken when Mr Tharoor had just won the elections for the Presidency of St Stephen's in 1974.]The Delhi Walla’s invitation to look back on my years at St Stephen’s College raises one awkward consideration at the very outset. After all, what does the very name "St Stephen's" convey to outsiders? Let's face it: to non-Stephanians, the term "St Stephen's" conjures up three overlapping concepts, none of which is meant to be flattering -- elitism, Anglophilia and deracination. One is obliged to confront this stereotype head on.When I was given the rare privilege of

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The city's Parsi population is struggling to survive.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]On the breezy evening of August 19th, 2008, around 0.0053715 per cent of the population of Delhi and its surrounding regions were invited to celebrate Navroz, the Parsi new year, at the city's 58-year-old Parsi Dharamshala in Bahadurshah Zafar Marg. There was music, dancing, mutton pulao, salli murghi (no patrani machhi!) and cheerful cries of "Saal Mubarak."The ancestors of these happy people, fleeing persecution in Persia, had landed on India's western shores more than a thousand years ago. However, their history in Delhi is relatively new. In 1913, there were hardly 30

Holy night in the Dargah. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sunday, August 17. Shab-e-Baraat, the night of destiny when one’s sins are pardoned and the fate sealed for the coming year. Scene: in the Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. Crowd. Candles. Sweet rice. A long queue for the main shrine. Why join the folks there? I’m content to pray outside in the courtyard. You see I don’t need to be physically close to the tomb of my Mehboob-e-Ilahi for He resides inside my heart. However, Altammash and Fida, my friends, young khadims (servants) in the Dargah, offers the advantage of their influential position in the shrine bureaucracy to sneak me in through the 'shortcut'. I'm hesitant but...what-the-heck! Finally, inside. Standing next to the

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.India's most famous beauty expert copes with the whims of an evolving city.[By Shahnaz Husain; the author's picture was taken during 1971]I was born in Hyderabad, married in Lucknow, moved to Tehran, came to Delhi and then never left the city. During my early years in the city, in the 70s, Delhi was less cosmopolitan than Tehran. The capital of the Shah of Iran was the city of tomorrow. Ice skating and bowling became popular in Delhi only during the 90s; Tehran was buzzing with them 20 years ago. The women there dressed in the latest French style — but underneath an abaya. Still, they

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Confronting, fighting and surviving odds.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]He has no job, no laptop. His resume shows no fancy school, no fancy college. Meet 30-year-old Mr. Rohit Malik, owner of delhievents.com, one of Delhi's most popular websites. Newspaper supplements depend on it to beef up their weekend listings. Author William Dalrymple calls it "a terrific website". Theatre director Sayeed Alam thinks that it "is one of the best things to have happened to Delhi in the recent past". With such a sunny outlook, you might imagine Mr. Malik to be the toast of the town, busy milking the cash cow out of India's