Jaipur Diary – Long Queue for JM Coetzee

Jaipur Diary – Long Queue for JM Coetzee

The big draw. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] A great crowd collected to hear JM Coetzee, one of the two Nobel laureates attending the Jaipur Literature Festival (the other is Orhan Pamuk). A reclusive South African author who…

Jaipur Diary – Orhan Pamuk's Girlfriend Kiran Desai on Mother Anita

Jaipur Diary – Orhan Pamuk’s Girlfriend Kiran Desai on Mother Anita

Her mama’s girl. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Instead of talking about boyfriend Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer who too is attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, novelist Kiran Desai talked – in great detail – about her mother,…

Jaipur Diary – Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

Jaipur Diary – Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

The anti-Mao couple. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Mao was as big a draw as Orhan Pamuk in the Jaipur Literature Festival. The ‘Vodafone’ Front Lawn in Diggi Palace Hotel – the venue – was full as Jung…

Jaipur Diary - Author Spotting in the Lit Fest

Jaipur Diary – Author Spotting in the Lit Fest

Look at them. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has a paunch. Novelist Kiran Desai has slender legs. Travel writer Rory Stewart is super tall. Jon Lee Anderson is a bear. Vikram Seth is so…

Jaipur Diary - Alex’s Adventure with Zero

Jaipur Diary – Alex’s Adventure with Zero

Hanging out in the Lit Fest. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] He was unlucky. At 10 am, Alex Bellos, the author of Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, was one of the first writers to have a session in the…

Jaipur Diary – First Day in the Lit Fest, 2011 Edition

Jaipur Diary – First Day in the Lit Fest, 2011 Edition

No literary pretensions. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Keep the focus on blue sky and beautiful people. In the 2011 edition of Jaipur Literature Festival, The Delhi Walla is staying away from post-colonial-post-modern-post-everything literature. There is so much…

The Delhi Walla Books – Launch Event, Lodhi Restaurant

The Delhi Walla Books – Launch Event, Lodhi Restaurant

Good snacks, good talk. [Pictures by Yajuvendra Upadhyaya, Marina Bang, Mark Williams and Surabhi Chauhan] The book launch for The Delhi Walla series was a success. The venue was packed. People laughed and clapped. And Arundhati Roy came! This is…

Photo Essay – Tourists in Their Own City, Agrasen ki Baoli

Photo Essay – Tourists in Their Own City, Agrasen ki Baoli

Discovering a monument. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Are there people who find monuments boring? One winter afternoon The Delhi Walla took a group of four – three women and a man – to the rarely visited Agrasen…

City Moment – The Shape of Sound, Delhi Metro

City Moment – The Shape of Sound, Delhi Metro

The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla was one morning traveling in the Delhi Metro’s Blue Line route, which connects Anand Vihar in east Delhi to Dwarka Sector 21 in west Delhi. In…

City Monument – Coronation Park, Bhai Parmanand Marg

City Monument – Coronation Park, Bhai Parmanand Marg

The relics of the Raj. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] At the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century, the empire of Great Britain comprehended the most civilized portion of mankind. Delhi was its principal possession….