City Landmark – Chanakya Cinema, 1970-2007 Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - January 28, 2010December 1, 20100 1970-2007 [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Last night, at 9:45 pm, I dreamt I went to Chanakya again. It seemed to me I stood by the box office that sells Rs. 30 front stall tickets, and for a while I could not see the clerk inside for the window was barred to me. Ticketless, I walked towards the glass door. It was locked. I called in my dream to the cinema security guard, and had no answer, and peering closer through the dirty glass I saw that the theater was uninhabited. No crowd was waiting in the foyer, and the little frames that should have displayed movie posters gaped forlorn. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with
City Landmark – Khan-i-Khana’s Tomb, Nizamuddin East Monuments by The Delhi Walla - January 28, 2010May 23, 20104 Scarred with beauty. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] A stone-paved lane hedged with marigold flowers leads to one of Delhi’s strangest monuments. The 16th century tomb of a Mughal noble, Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana, is both ugly and beautiful. Its exterior stonework is stripped off. The plaster on its inside walls is chipped. Its niches are cobwebbed. The ceilings are scrawled with romantic messages. But before you notice the flaws, the weathered dome, as well as the chhatris and the arches take you in. The underground tomb is inaccessible but the sarcophagus in the upper chamber is bare, quiet, dark and windy. Bordered by the tony Nizamuddin East bungalows on one side and the noisy Mathura Road on the other, the large