City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXV, Appetite Bakery Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - July 30, 2012April 17, 20135 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 25th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Monday evening for an hour we read his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. Each week we meet in a new venue to dive into the atmosphere of Marcel’s novel. It is 7 pm and The Delhi Walla is at Appetite German Bakery in Paharganj. When I first arrived in Delhi a few years ago to work as a waiter in a hotel, this bakery was my shelter from life’s various dissatisfactions. I would come here with a book and dream of becoming a published author. Today, I am a published
City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Café Turtle Style by The Delhi Walla - July 28, 2012February 11, 20166 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this woman at Café Turtle in Khan Market, India’s most expensive shopping street. She was wearing a flower print dress. Her toe nails were polished pink; her brassier that partly slipped out from beneath the gown, too, was pink. The sandals were brown. Her neckpiece was a multi-colored thread. There was no one dressed like her. Popular with expatriates, Café Turtle is one of those places in Delhi where you might not be understood if you talk in Hindi. The house music is jazz, the stewards are unobtrusive and the date cake goes well with hot toffee sauce. The woman looked as comfortable as if she was lounging
City Food – Sewai, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - July 26, 2012July 26, 20124 Sweet soul food. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is the sweet food of Ramzan, the holy month when Muslims are required to fast till the sunset to cleanse their soul. In evenings, the decorated alleys in Delhi’s dominantly Muslim neighbourhoods such as Jamia Nagar, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti and Matia Mahal are lined with stalls selling sewai. Thin strands of wheat flour, sewai are boiled in rose-flavoured milk, occasionally garnished with pistachio nuts, almonds and rasins, and are taken as dessert. At home, the women prepare the sewai strands by straining the flour in a fine muslin cloth, after which they knead it into smooth dough. There are also sewai-making machines with perforations. The dough is divided into little balls and
City Series – Stones of Jama Masjid IV, Shahjahanabad General by The Delhi Walla - July 24, 2012July 24, 20123 Delhi’s grand Friday mosque. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] As I am entering Jama Masjid, I recall the day I first viewed its Mecca-facing Western Wall. I was walking down from Chawri Bazaar, which used to be a district of courtesans during the Mughal-era. Today, a substantial portion of it is a wholesale market for paper merchants who migrated to Delhi following the Partition. In the evening, the traffic on the road consists of cycle rickshaws. In the early morning, the shops are closed and the bazaar is empty, save for the area’s daily-wage labourers. This is their home. Here, they sleep – on the pavements, or on their pull-carts. Here, they perform their toilette, and wash their clothes,
City Notice – The Delhi Proustians XXV, Appetite Bakery Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - July 23, 2012April 17, 20130 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The 25th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust, was cancelled because of heavy showers. It will take place on 23 July 2012. Venue: Appetite Bakery, Main Bazaar, Paharganj. Time: 7 pm. Where Appetite Bakery, Main Bazaar, Paharganj Nearest Metro Station Ramakrishna Ashram Marg Time 7 pm
The Delhi Walla Books – Considered by The Friday Times The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - July 21, 2012July 21, 20127 Effortless expedition into the city. [Text by Raza Rumi; photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Friday Times, Pakistan’s esteemed news weekly, reviewed The Delhi Walla books in its 26 July 2012 edition. Here is the complete text: Certain things get delayed beyond redemption. And one of these slipped covenants with myself was the sheer pleasure of writing about four short but enticing booklets on Delhi. My deep interest in Delhi began more than seven years ago when I visited the great capital for the first time. No, it is not the adoration of what Delhi has become after 1947, but its grand past and how it continues to live on despite the ideological shifts in the Indian republic. For Pakistanis and Muslims of
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ekta Talwar, The Book Shop City Poetry General by The Delhi Walla - July 19, 2012June 3, 20153 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Ekta Talwar at The Book Shop in Jorbagh Market. In her early 20s, Ms Talwar graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Honours from Delhi University’s Dayal Singh College. She is learning French at the Alliance française de Delhi in Max Mueller Marg. Fond of reading Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand, Ismat Chughtai and Jane Austen, Ms Talwar composes poems on her mobile phone. She shares one with us. Whenever I talk to you I smile, You make my life seem worthwhile, You taught me the meaning of care, What it is to love and share, People like you are hard to find, Somebody who is so naughty and yet so
Photo Essay – Female Feticide, Around Town Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - July 17, 2012July 17, 20121 Killing the girl child. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] According to the 2011 census, Delhi's sex ratio of children up to six years of age has dropped to 866 girls per 1,000 boys from 868 girls in 2001. The child sex ratio of Delhi is much below the national average of 914. In early 2012, Delhi’s chief minister Sheila Dikshit was reported saying, “In 2008, Delhi had 1,004 females against 1,000 males. But, 2010 witnessed a drop. Despite a ban, some nursing homes continue to conduct prenatal sex determination tests.” The Delhi Walla searches for the girl child. Some little girls have been allowed to live 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXIV, Muhammad Shah Sayyid’s Mausoleum Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - July 15, 2012April 17, 20133 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 24th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Monday evening for an hour we read his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. Each week we meet in a new venue to dive into the atmosphere of Marcel’s novel. It is 7 pm and The Delhi Walla is in Lodhi Garden, adjacent to the tomb of Muhammad Shah Sayyid. I have read Marcel in this park before, too, but today I am looking at the garden with a different perspective. I am in the midst of Place-Names - The Name, the third and final section of Swann’s Way, the
Mission Delhi – Mohammed Usman, Netaji Subhash Marg Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 14, 2012July 14, 20127 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opening his wallet and resting his finger on a photo, he says, “That’s Khushbu Khatoon, my oldest child. She is eight. That’s Mohammed Raja, my son. He is six. That’s Rani Khatoon. She is four. And she is Gulesha Khatoon, my wife. My youngest was not born when this photo was taken. Soni Khatoon is two.” Mohammed Usman, 32, lives on a pavement adjacent to Netaji Subshash Marg. The Delhi Walla came across him one morning in front of the Mughal-era Red Fort. Wearing a striped blue-green shirt and red track pants, he says, “They live back home in Bihar. I arrived in Delhi a decade ago.” “You could