Cracking the city.
[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]
You don’t understand a city by its buildings and bazaars, but by its people. That’s why you can’t take in the entire Delhi in one lifetime – we have 13 million souls here.
The Delhi Walla plans to make portraits of one per cent of this 8-digit figure, that is 1, 30, 000 Delhiwallas. Each portrait will have a photograph of the person along with a peek into his life.
By the time I finish the project (just assuming), the looks and the lives of most people I will photograph and profile is bound to change. You may wonder then, what is the point?
People are not ruins. They evolve over the years. Trying to sketch a person at a moment in his/her life is not to mummify him/her, but to get a sense of the city, his/her city.
So I will search for people like you. You can be anyone. You may be living in a Defence Colony barsati or in a Seelampur shanty. You may be from Bihar or Kerala. You may be a vice chancellor. You may be a prostitute. You may be a rich man’s daughter. You may be a content housewife. You may be bisexual. You may be asexual. I’m interested in you all. I want to portray all of you… oh no, just one per cent of you.
But one lakh and thirty thousand portraits… possible?
Inshallah. God willing.
Click here for Muhammad Salim, the first portrait.
Click here for Berenice Ellen, the second portrait.
Click here for Shankar, the third portrait.
Click here for Satnam Singh Juneja, the fourth portrait.
Click here for Mushirul Hasan, the fifth portrait.
Click here for Pooja, the sixth portrait.
Click here for Aanchal Malhotra, the seventh portrait.
Click here for Changa Kumar, the eighth portrait.
Click here for Rakesh Chandra, the ninth portrait.
Click here for Sumanta Roy, the 10th portrait.
Click here for Deen Dayal, the 11th portrait.
Click here for Muhammad Aslam, the 12th portrait.
Click here for Syed Haider Raza, the 13th portrait.
Click here for Sarah Rose, the 14th portrait.
Click here for Aarti, the 15th portrait.
Click here for Rachana Rao Umashankar, the 16th portrait.
Click here for Muhammad Waseem, the 17th portrait.
Click here for Surinder, the 18th portrait.
Click here for Ram Swaroop Sharma, the 19th portrait.
Click here for Kareem Khan, the 20th portrait.
Click here for Sunita Pandit, the 21st portrait.
Click here for Salim Javeri, the 22nd portrait.
Click here for Irene Banias, the 23rd portrait.
Click here for Nitin Chanana, the 24th portrait.
Click here for Suresh Shah, the 25th portrait.
Click here for Noor Bano, the 26th portrait.
Click here for Rakhshanda Jalil, the 27th portrait.
Click here for Ajeet Singh Chauhan, the 28th portrait.
Click here for Naresh Chandra, the 29th portrait.
Click here for Muhammad Chand, the 30th portrait.
Click here for Siddhartha Gigoo, the 31st portrait.
Click here for Ankit Verma, the 32nd portrait.
Click here for Raghavendra Vanjre, the 33rd portrait.
Click here for Vijay Kumar, the 34th portrait.
Click here for Usha Hooda, the 35th portrait.
Click here for Ajit Phogat, the 36th portrait.
Click here for Fahad Khan, the 37th portrait.
Click here for Sakina Mehta, the 38th portrait.
Click here for Editor, the 39th portrait.
Click here for Sadia Dehlvi, the 40th portrait.
Click here for Mritunjay Kumar Tiwari, the 41st portrait.
Click here for Abhay Singh, the 42nd portrait.
Click here for Nameless Kapoor, the 43rd portrait.
Click here for Zubeida Bano, the 44th portrait.
Click here for Ramlal Thakur, the 45th portrait.
Click here for A. Husain, the 46th portrait.
Click here for PM Sahay, the 47th portrait.
Click here for Shyam Sundar Thapa, the 48th portrait.
Click here for Dr Ubaidul Aleem, the 49th portrait.
Click here for Amir Dehlavi, the 50th portrait.
Click here for Muhammed Iftikhar, the 51st portrait.
Click here for Pradip Krishen, the 52nd portrait.
Click here for Savitha Sastry, the 53rd portrait.
Click here for Rakesh Kumar Mishra, the 54th portrait.
Click here for Billi, the 55th portrait.
Click here for Tasleem Bibi, the 56th portrait.
Click here for Syed Ameen Meer Dehlvi, the 57th portrait.
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I am up for one ..
living in this GOD damn US of A .. I have still maintained those old east dilli values in me ..
wotsay ??
Rupesh, why don’t you please write to me at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com?
All the best !!….
someday Inshallah !! we would have an Delhiwala Coffee table book …May be weighing 20 Kg…..
Great idea. The culture is the people. Dilli is Dilli.
Good luck Sir. Will help in whatever way I possibly can.
130000/365 ~ 356.12
I wish i could accompany you in your mission.
It’s possible! Good luck.
Mayank… m up for one too….
m coming to Delhi after 6 years, I’ve a friends with me also from Delhi who would like to meet with you….
Let me know if interested. :]
I’m not from Dehli. Didn’t get a chance to visit. By my ancestors are. It would be fantastic to include portraits of migrants from Dehli….those who migrated during Partition.
Good luck on this project. I would love to do the same for Lahore…which is in my eyes, a very fantastic city.
Mao: Yes, Lahore is a fantastic city. I have been there.
Ankit: Yes, why not!
Ambitious project! Have you worked out how many people that is per day if you are going to work on this for the rest of your life? A year has 365 days, hmm …
Lucie,
I intend to reach the final number but I do not intend to drown the people whom I profile in a grey haze of standard issue life stories. Every individual’s life must stand out. Yes.
good luck Mayank.
Mayank: awesome…. whadya say to sometime in January??? :]
Best wishes MAS…. I wish I could help you in anyway..
Living in Bombay and Hyderabad for the past three years, but a piece of Delhi in me everyday… Your blog is one big ways of remaining connected to the Delhi i love so much…Thanks! God Bless You.
DB (http://deebuddy.blogspot.com)
Mayank,
I m highly connected to Delhi. Been living here since 6 years. Despite its extreme climate condition, loud people, irregular traffic rules, Harrassing checkposts, pricey outings and abusive mouths….I still love Delhi. Whenever I go to my homeland, after few days Delhi strangely pulls me to itself…and I give in to it..
Sumanta
Gr8 Mission n Gr8 Work you do..All the Write-ups n PiXXX..Everythin..Jz love it allPLz plz plz..Do tell if i too can b a part of this..Apart from readin it that is