Mission Delhi – One Percent in 13 Million

Bus No. 522

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 Faisal 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.

Click here for Bimal, the 58th portrait.

Click here for Lobsang Dorji Hayer, the 59th portrait.

Click here for Mother, the 60th portrait.

Click here for Mohammed Usman, the 61st portrait.

Click here for The Silent Woman, the 62nd portrait.

Click here for Ugen Tashi Bhutia, the 63rd portrait.

Click here for Muhammed Anwar, the 64th portrait.

Click here for Mumtaz Begum, the 65th portrait.

Click here for Ram Dulare, the 66th portrait.

Click here for Sultan, the 67th portrait.

Click here for Naz Ikramullah, the 68th portrait.

Click here for Nalini Kant Pathak, the 69th portrait.

Click here for Achhuta Nandan, the 70th portrait.

Click here for Aliya Sayyed, the 71st portrait.

Click here for Jyoti Mariyam Hora, the 72nd portrait.

Click here for Bonisha Bhattacharyya, the 73rd portrait.

Click here for Salim Khan, the 74th portrait.

Click here for Leonid Plotkin, the 75th portrait.

Click here for Ashok Kumar, the 76th portrait.

Click here for Shanti Devi, the 77th portrait.

Click here for Kaloo, the 78th portrait.

Click here for Mister Suneel, the 79th portrait.

Click here for Madhusudan Srivastava, the 80th portrait.

Click here for Sohan Singh, the 81st portrait.

Click here for Sheila Dikshit, the 82nd portrait.

Click here for Muhammed Waseem, the 83rd portrait.

Click here for Pathik Kar, the 84th portrait.

Click here for Unnamed Sufi, the 85th portrait.

Click here for Ramchander, the 86th portrait.

Click here for Vikash, the 87th portrait.

Click here for Ratish Nanda, the 88th portrait.

Click here for Ramrati Singh, the 89th portrait.

Click here for Surya Ramaswamy, the 90th portrait.

Click here for Mithilesh Singh, the 91st portrait.

Click here for Kanhaiya, the 92nd portrait.

Click here for The 50-dates-woman, the 93rd portrait.

Click here for Rames Kumar, the 94th portrait.

Click here for Ronald Vivian Smith, the 95th portrait.

Click here for Anonymous Girl, the 96th portrait.

Click here for Harsha Vardhan Dutta, the 97th portrait.

Click here for Shagun Sinha, the 98th portrait.

Click here for Ratan Kaul, the 99th portrait.

Click here for Asha Sood, the 100th portrait.

Click here for Geeta Devi, the 101st portrait.

Click here for Julie, the 102nd portrait.

Click here for Tippu, the 103rd portrait.

Click here for S.M. Yunus Jaffery, the 104th portrait.

Click here for Devi, the 105th portrait.

Click here for Ashutosh Tripathi, the 106th portrait.

Click here for Sufi the Cat, the 107th portrait.

Click here for Sona Devi, the 108th portrait.

Click here for Kuttey Walle Baba, the 109th portrait.

Click here for The Man With No Name, the 110th portrait.

Click here for Catherine Lama, the 111th portrait.

Click here for Meer Aliza, the 112th portrait.

Click here for Mohan Charagi, the 113th portrait.

Click here for Prahlad Singh Shekhawat, the 114th portrait.

Click here for Faisal Khan, the 115th portrait.

Click here for Amar Jyoti, the 116th portrait.

Click here for Muhammed Irfan Qureshi, the 117th portrait.

Click here for Muhammed Mirajuddin, the 118th portrait.

Click here for Mohammed Saleem, the 119th portrait.

Click here for Yashwant Rai Goyal, the 120th portrait.

Click here for Asif Fehmi, the 121st portrait.

Click here for Rupin Walter Desai, the 122nd portrait.

Click here for Monet Lalparvul, the 123rd portrait.

Click here for Miss Suhana, the 124th portrait.

Click here for Sooraj Mal, the 125th portrait.

Click here for Ibrar Ahmad, the 126th portrait.

Click here for Arjun Sagar Gupta, the 127th portrait.

Click here for Salma, the 128th portrait.

Click here for Elena Tommaseo, the 129th portrait.

Click here for Simona Anedda, the 130th portrait.

Click here for Mirza Yaseen Beg, the 131st portrait.

Click here for Arshad Ali, the 132nd portrait.

Click here for Soumya Singh, the 133rd portrait.

Click here for Meer Chand, the 134th portrait.

Click here for Salma Sultan, the 134th portrait.

Click here for Deepak Kumar, the 135th portrait.

Click here for Shri Om Dhama, the 136th portrait.

Click here for Dev Kumar, the 137th portrait.

Click here for Momo, the 138th portrait.