The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Delhi's several colours.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Each year as the winter sets in, the east Indian state of Bihar gets down to worship the sun. The festival is called Chhath Pooja. Since a large number of Delhiwallas happen to be Biharis, this is the Capital’s carnival, too. On the penultimate day of the four-day-long festivities, the devotees wade into a water body (it could be a river, stream, canal, or even a puddle), fold their hands into a namaste, and pray to Surya Devta as he sinks into

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The existential question.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]The old quarters of any ‘World Class City’, say, like Madrid, are always beautiful and clean. Then why is the touristy Old Delhi, also called Delhi-6 due to its pin code, so chaotic and dirty?The Delhi Walla is at Chitli Qabar chowk, the heart of the walled city, the one-time Capital of the Mughal Empire. From this intersection, one lane leads to Matia Mahal bazaar, another to Daryaganj, the third to Turkman Gate.Instead of a cop, there is a fishmonger at the

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The Capital's red light district.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]Gastion Bastion Road, Delhi’s red-light district, has many aspects - colonial-era corridors, old havelis, and even an ATM, tucked right next to a Madame's establishment, kotha, in local slang. GB Road houses a temple, a mosque, a school. It is said to be India's biggest market for bathroom fittings. It even has its own ruin – the Ajmeri Gate. GB Road is merely a ten-minutes walk from Connaught Place. But these are not the images evoked by the words ‘The

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Delhi’s most famous expat author.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]When The Delhi Walla met the Delhi-based British author at his Mira Singh farmhouse off the Mehrauli-Gurgaon highway, he was lounging on a wicker chair in his garden. Looking like a white nabab, Mr Dalrymple is as popular. India International Center fills up each time he speaks. His articles are published in literary journals such as The New Yorker. Mr Dalrymple’s bitch, Aishwarya, was barking; his bird Albinia was kissing him on the lips; his children were playing with

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A Singaporean's hard talk with Delhiwallas.[Text by Phebe Bay; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]The author, studying at a university in Singapore, came to Delhi for a 5-month internship. During her stay, she was mistaken for a Nepalese, a Korean and a Japanese. One Delhiwalla felt compelled to tell her his theory of her small Chinese eyes - they were the result of atomic bombings in Hiroshima.With Delhi preparing to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Delhi-wallas are preoccupied with the idea of it becoming a World Class City. For that to

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The British-built district's distinctness has disappeared.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]The dating point Nirula’s is now the family-friendly Haldiram’s. Connaught Place, the place I knew, is gone. Look around Central Park: couples on the slopes, college students in the amphitheater, families on the cement pathways. The place is sanitized. Once this was a refuge for ‘anti-socials’.Then, in 2007, the Delhi Metro barricaded the park, felled the trees, dug the ground, and set up a rail terminus below, a garden above.By the time the park re-opened, the familiar ‘eye sores’

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Tracing Mahatma Gandhi’s complex legacy.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]Has Vijay Chauhan, 24, learnt anything new about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi after working as a dishwasher in the canteen of Gandhi Peace Foundation for almost three years? “Yes, I have,” he says. “These are used plates and there I have to wash them.”Sixty-one years after his death, The Delhi Walla finds Gandhi’s legacy reflected in the life of this young man, but not in the way the Mahatma could have imagined. Reclining on a canteen chair, with the mid-morning light