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Year: 2010

City Season – Cold Weather Forecasting

by The Delhi Walla - 3

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

by The Delhi Walla - 3

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

by The Delhi Walla - 3

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

by The Delhi Walla - 0

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

Memo from Paharganj – Life After The Renovation

by The Delhi Walla - 1

Reporting from the backpackers’ ghetto. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] How is Paharganj, Delhi’s backpackers’ ghetto, doing? Popular among budget tourists for its low-price hotels and cafes, the area’s Main Market underwent renovation in the run up to the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. The road was widened, the encroaching shops were demolished and the pavements laid with bricks. Quite a few hotels and restaurants went for a more personalized renovation: a new coat of paint was applied, floors were re-done and windowpanes replaced. The popular Everest Café, for instance, opened another wing. Late one evening The Delhi Walla went there to test the mood. It was not crowded, very unlike Paharganj. “The Main Market did not get business during the

The Delhi Walla Books – They Are Bestsellers

by The Delhi Walla - 13

5,000 copies sold. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla has got company. The other evening US President Barack Obama was sitting beside me. I mean Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars was placed next to my books, The Delhi Walla series, at the front shelf of Khan Market's Faqirchand Bookstore. “Your books are doing very well,” the lady in Faqirchand said. “They will keep on selling well,” Anuj Bahri of Bahrisons Booksellers said. “The Delhi Walla is selling like hot cakes,” said the man in Full Circle bookstore. It’s official: my books have become bestsellers. All three volumes have been in the Top 10 bestselling list of Asian Age – for two consecutive weeks. Just hours before writing this, I got a

Mission Delhi – Raghavendra Vanjre, Hauz Khas Village

by The Delhi Walla - 2

One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Approaching the table where two new guests have seated, he looks curiously at the book one of them has placed beside the flower vase. It is the paperback edition of Sam Miller’s Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity. While presenting them the menu, he asks if he can borrow the book for a minute. They oblige. The Delhi Walla met Raghavendra Vanjre, 31, in Naivedyam, a south Indian specialty restaurant in south Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village. A staff captain, he is fond of reading. In the restaurant, he has established bonds with regular guests, who are fellow book lovers. If they happen to be dining alone, Mr Vanjre

City Library – The Delhi Walla, Nizamuddin Basti

by The Delhi Walla - 9

A vanishing world. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One day there will still be books, but they might not be in the printed form. In the series City Library, The Delhi Walla will make a record of the private libraries of Delhiwallas. In each library, I will try to understand the library owner through his or her collection of books. How many books are there? How many books does she buy every week? How did she acquire her library? Why this author? Why so many books on, say, Soviet Russia? Whose picture is on that bookshelf? Why does not she lend her books? Which bookshop she is addicted to? What will happen to the library after her? I start with my

City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Janpath

by The Delhi Walla - 2

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this woman in Janpath, the flea market in central Delhi’s Connaught Place. Wearing a white jumpsuit, white sandals, dark sunglasses and no make-up, she had two shopping bags on her right arm. An off-white satchel bag was slung around her shoulders. Her black hair was falling around her. Her pendant – two silver coloured half-moons – was carelessly strung on her neck. Walking past a fruit vendor, who was in a brown sari with orange floral motifs, the young woman’s minimal look made a style statement. The white colours sat smoothly on her caramelised skin tone. No one in Janpath was dressed like her. It is the

Photo Essay – Blueline Buses, Around Town

by The Delhi Walla - 2

They will be removed. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Till the 80s, the only city buses to rule Delhi’s roads were run by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). In 1992, the bus service was privatised and Redline buses were introduced. After these private buses ran over many pedestrians, they were painted blue. But they turned out to be deadlier - Bluelines killed 1,072 people in the last decade, with year 2005 being the worst with 175 deaths. The buses became infamous for rash driving, and for never actually really stopping at bus stops. In November 2007, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit flagged off the first 12 green low-floor CNG buses on Rajpath. She also took a round in the new red-coloured air-conditioned

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