Memo from Nizamuddin Dargah – Meeting the Other Sex General by The Delhi Walla - November 27, 2010November 27, 20103 The world of the hijras. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] In November 2010, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi extended its pension scheme for deprived sections to the city’s eunuchs. They will now get a monthly pension of Rs 1,000. A few evenings later in the courtyard of Hazrat Nizamuddin's sufi shrine, The Delhi Walla came across a group of eunuchs, better known as hijras. You, too, must have seen them — in public gardens, at traffic lights, and perhaps also in your apartment complex if there had been a wedding, a birth, or some such happy occasion in the next-door flat. Rarely with regular jobs, hijras earn by asking for money; in exchange they offer their blessings. No one is sure
City Food – Julia Child Makes Chai in Turkman Gate Julia Child's Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 25, 2010February 27, 20113 The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of Turkman Gate, a congested neighbourhood in the Walled City. Quiet and gentle, Child is not sure of his age but he looks like as if he is in his 40s. Born and brought up in Turkman Gate, he has been following the trade of his father and grandfather – making tea. This is an art as complicated as boiling an egg. Chai stalls – specializing in readymade light-brown brew - are all over Delhi. Most are passable, with a drawback or two. Some make chai that’s too milky. Some flavour it with too much cardamom. Some are too generous with ginger. Some go overboard
Mission Delhi – Vijay Kumar, Paharganj Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 24, 2010November 24, 20102 One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] For the last 10 minutes, his grey eyes haven’t blinked; his posture on the green plastic chair hasn’t changed. Vijay Kumar, 56, is selling second-hand books in Paharganj, central Delhi, for 30 years. “Nothing has changed since 1980, when I started this stall,” he says. The Delhi Walla meets him one winter morning at his pavement stall on Rajguru Road, near Imperial cinema. “The only difference is that, cell phone hoardings have come up and more hotels have mushroomed. Paharganj is less residential now.” Jostled between Blessing Hotel and Rajasthani Music Emporium, Mr Kumar’s establishment has novels and guidebooks in English, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian
The Delhi Walla Books – They Are Not Enough The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - November 22, 2010November 22, 20108 Reflections at the Midland bookstore, South Extension-I. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The other day I met a friend in Lodhi Garden. She remarked on my unkempt hair. I said, “Who cares! I’m a bloody author of four books!” That same evening I went to the Midland bookstore in South Extension-I. I’m regular there but the owner has never ever chatted to me. At the most, he would nod at me before getting on with his business. Yesterday, however, he did talk (Even the owner's son shook hands with me!). Bookseller: You must give me a part of the loot. Me: What! Bookseller: We are really selling your books. Me: Oh, oh. So, are they selling well? Bookseller: Selling like hot cakes. Dilliwalla are a
City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Barakhamba Style by The Delhi Walla - November 18, 2010March 11, 20112 Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man coming out of Barakhamba Metro station, gate no. 6, in Connaught Place, Delhi’s premier commercial district. It was 9 am, the rush hour. At first, I could only see his red turban, the essential headgear of the Sikhs. After getting off the escalators, the much younger crowd got ahead of him. Tapping his spiral-detailed walking stick (mahogany?) on the cemented ground, he slowly emerged into full view. The man’s white beard was arranged neatly; his body was frail; his posture erect; his eyes shielded by maroon-rimmed spectacles were grey. The greyness of his crisscross printed tie, worn with a double knot, was in harmony with
The Biographical Dictionary of Delhi – Shanky, b. Chandni Chowk, Delhi, 1968 Biographical Dictionary by The Delhi Walla - November 16, 2010July 7, 20153 The definitive directory of famous Delhiites. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Shanky’s is one of the more curious careers in Indian cinema. This son of a factory supervisor is as unknown as any acclaimed art house film. A collector of movie posters, he is a familiar face only among the high-end dealers of Bollywood’s premier kitsch art. Shanky was a shop assistant at a footwear store in Old Delhi’s Ballimaran. Before that, he was a student at the madarsa in Chandni Chowk’s Fatehpuri Masjid. Dabbling with photography swept him into his life’s calling. Distributors of black and white films would come to his photo studio in Maujpur, east Delhi, to get their posters touched with flashy colours. In 2006, Shanky
City Season – Cold Weather Forecasting General by The Delhi Walla - November 15, 20103 Delhi ceases to be Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Evening. Early November. Very soon, the doors leading to the tomb of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya will close not at 10 pm, the usual time, but half an hour earlier. This will mean that winter has finally arrived in Delhi. The same night, a few hours later, it may rain. The temperature may drop, making the security guards in the residential apartments of Patparganj shiver in their guardrooms. In Dwarka, less congested than the ‘puri’s and ‘bagh’s, it will be colder still. The morning after will bring a change to the city scenery. A feeble layer of mist will settle over the Yamuna. The river, or whatever is left of it, will
City Season – Signs of Winter, Connaught Place General by The Delhi Walla - November 11, 2010November 11, 20103 Delhi's cold wardrobe. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla is looking for signs of winter in Delhi’s colonial-era shopping district, Connaught Place. It is the second week of November. The city gets chilly, but only in the early hours of the dawn. The noonday air is warm enough for a European backpacker to strip to a Tee. Delhiwallas, however, are more deferential. In D Block, Inner Circle, I spot a girl in a summer dress of rolled-up jeans and flip-flops, but she is also wearing a jacket. It’s a sight. The season's other sights are astrakhan caps, tweed coats, khadi jackets, denim overalls, button-up cardigans, woolen blazers and also, unfortunately, monkey caps. Parsin Jaspreet N Banerjee Dharamdev Sharma November Sun, Lodhi Garden Karan and
City Moment – Bird Catcher, Bulbuli Khana Moments by The Delhi Walla - November 10, 2010November 10, 20103 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 Bulbuli Khana, a cramped neighbourhood in Old Delhi. The only public spaces that are wide and airy in this part of the Walled City are courtyards in the area’s mosques. The neighbourhood, however, is remarkable for its old-world character. The houses are ancient and the doorways are beautiful. Goats dart down the narrow alleys, women are seen in veils and old men gather around chai stalls. Reaching a turning I found an incredible sight. A pigeon was perched on an overhanging electric wire. A boy, standing on the second floor balcony of a house, was calling out to the
City Secret – The Body Re-builder, Mahipalpur General by The Delhi Walla - November 9, 2010November 9, 20100 The desi way to mend broken bodies. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Good morning and...Brrrinng! Nas char gayi. Neck cramp is painful. Drive towards Indian Spinal Injuries Center at Vasant Kunj, south Delhi. Don't stop there. Keep going straight to Mahipalpur, the urban village towards Indira Gandhi International Airport. Keep driving. Can you now see the hoarding of a wrestler with fractured arm? That's Chowdhury Pehelwan. Pehelwan is the Hindi for wrestler. Four such stalls stand here; all run by men called Chowdhury Pehelwans; all claiming to heal fractures, sprains, cramps and blisters; all storing herbal oils, creams and clean cotton bandages; all from the same village in Meerut, a nearby town in Uttar Pradesh. Step into the one sandwiched between