Memo from Jantar Mantar - Free Dr Binayak Sen

Memo from Jantar Mantar – Free Dr Binayak Sen

This is injustice. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold afternoon, The Delhi Walla went to Jantar Mantar after receiving a chain text message the day before on the cell phone: Join citizens’ protest against the conviction of…

Photo Essay – The Shadow People, Lodhi Road

Photo Essay – The Shadow People, Lodhi Road

Homeless in winter streets. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold December midnight, The Delhi Walla was walking on Lodhi Road. It had rained in the day. The homeless people were sleeping on the pavement, which was still…

City Food – Roasted Peanuts, Around Town

City Food – Roasted Peanuts, Around Town

The soul food for winter. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Peanut roasting is a cold-weather trade on Delhi’s streets. The Bhaiyyas, mostly migrants from the impoverished countryside of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, fill up their carts with popcorn,…

City Sighting - Arundhati Roy, Hauz Khas Village

City Sighting – Arundhati Roy, Hauz Khas Village

Delhi’s most notorious seditionist. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening, The Delhi Walla sighted his most beloved Delhiite – author Arundhati Roy. She was walking down an alley in Hauz Khas Village, south Delhi. Ms Roy was…

City Landmark – Walled City Museum, Lahore Gate Chowk

City Landmark – Walled City Museum, Lahore Gate Chowk

Delhi’s saddest museum. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opened in 2004, the Walled City museum in Lahore Gate smells of urine. Housed in the Shri Narayan haveli, circa 1929, the windowpanes are broken, the door is unlocked, the…

Mission Delhi - Usha Hooda, Hauz Khas Village

Mission Delhi – Usha Hooda, Hauz Khas Village

One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s mid-morning but it doesn’t matter to her. “Time doesn’t exist in my life,” says painter Usha Hooda as she dabs her brush in…

City Secret – Mangarbani, near Chattarpur

City Secret – Mangarbani, near Chattarpur

Delhi’s most beautiful forest. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] You don’t have to fly to Copenhagen or Cancun to save the planet. The other day The Delhi Walla joined Pradip Krishen, author of Trees of Delhi, for an…

City Moment – Sealed With a Kiss, Paharganj

City Moment – Sealed With a Kiss, Paharganj

The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla was one afternoon taking a stroll in a by-lane in Paharganj, a claustrophobic neighbourhood near New Delhi railway station. While the principal street is lined with…

City Hangout – A Booklover’s Connaught Place

City Hangout – A Booklover’s Connaught Place

The definitive Delhi guide for book lovers. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The book is not dead. Not in Connaught Place, central Delhi’s colonial-era shopping district. One winter afternoon, The Delhi Walla visited all the bookshops in the…

The Biographical Dictionary of Delhi – Ronald Vivian Smith, b. Agra, 1938

The Biographical Dictionary of Delhi – Ronald Vivian Smith, b. Agra, 1938

The definitive directory of famous Delhiites. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Of all the authors who made Delhi the central theme of their literary lives, the case of Ronald Vivian Smith is the most intriguing. He has given…