City Notice – The Delhi Proustians XXXVI Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - December 31, 2012April 17, 20131 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The 36th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust, will take place later in January 2013. You will be informed in due time.
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – The Girl in the Bus, Munirika General by The Delhi Walla - December 30, 2012June 3, 20154 Poetry in the city. This poem is by The Delhi Walla. Which movie did she see on Sunday evening? In Jantar Mantar. To a fellow Delhiwalla, 'Sir, are you for or against rape?' Newspapers say she was returning home after watching a film in Select Citywalk, She was with a friend. Cutting across party lines, Members of our Parliament sound self-righteous. Did she have a cappuccino in the multiplex? Popcorns or nachos? Extraordinary outrage of our TV news anchors, As if a metal rod was never before forced into a living body, In Kashmir, Manipur, Gujarat and Chattisgarh. 23-year-old. Special campaigns launched by our newspapers, To unite India against rape. (Helps in the branding, Makes a connection with the readership.) A physiotherapy student, Basically from UP. Media reached in time at India Gate last night, To cover the candle-light protest. The newspapers call
City Food – Buffalo Legs, Chitli Qabar Bazaar Food by The Delhi Walla - December 26, 2012January 22, 20193 Winter warmer. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The alleys of Old Delhi’s Chitli Qabar bazaar throw up incredibly kaleidoscopic sights in winter mornings. There are hawkers selling, among other things, buffalo legs, or paya. Stacked in straw baskets, the blood-soaked legs are still intact — its hide, hair and hoof gives it a feeling of being so alive that you feel they might start walking any moment. Although paya is also consumed in the summer, the locals insist it to be a cold-season dish. “The legs of buffalo heat up the body,” a customer explains. “Its taseer (effect) is warming.” As it takes time to cook the meat, some payawallas sell semi-boiled legs to time-conscious customers. Often simmered on the pavement itself, the
City Book – GB Road, Inside Delhi’s Red Light District The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - December 25, 20122 Interview on Nobody Can Love You More. [The above photo is by Helena Kaartinen] Joanna Sugden at The Wall Street Journal's website talked to The Delhi Walla about his book Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi's Red Light District. Click here to read it on the newspaper's website, or see below. Mayank Austen Soofi spent three years documenting the lives of people living and working in Delhi’s red light district. His book “Nobody Can Love You More,” which has just been published by Penguin India, is a glimpse inside the world of the women, men and children who live in the brothels or kothas on Garstin Bastion Road in Old Delhi. The author tells The Wall Street Journal’s India Real Time how
City Hangout – Kashmere Gate, North Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - December 23, 2012December 23, 20124 In search of lost time. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] With sloping tin roofs, decorated iron columns, terracotta jaalis, independently-owned stores and a 19th century church, Kashmere Gate in north Delhi suggests a small-town setting, in which the life's daily rhythm never changes. The Sunday prayers are still held at St. James, Delhi’s oldest church. Down the lane, on Lothian Road, Martin Drycleaners, circa 1947, is still in operation. Close by, Garg Armoury has been selling guns and ammunition for more than 60 years. Across the road, the chemist shop C. Lal & Sons is in buisness since 1935. However, not everything has stayed the same in Kashmere Gate, a neighbourhood named after a surviving gateway of the Mughal-era city wall.
Mission Delhi – Sultan, Turkman Gate Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 21, 2012December 21, 20125 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is standing quietly on a stationery scooter. The Delhi Walla approaches him. The scooter is parked in an alley in Turkman Gate, a congested neighbourhood in the Walled City. He looks to his left. A fighter cock, Sultan was born in Punjab a year ago. He arrived in Delhi after being gifted to Mohammed Danish, a butcher in Turkman Gate. “He eats 50 gm bajra daily,” Mr Danish says. “He also likes almonds.” “Why is he perched on the scooter?” I ask. “He likes watching people walking up and down the street.” While it is impossible to determine what is going on in Sultan’s mind,
City Hangout – Change of Guard, Rashtrapati Bhawan Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - December 18, 2012December 18, 20122 The Raisina show. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sleekly muscled. Powerful. Well-groomed. These were some of the assertions made in a letter sent by Rashtrapati Bhavan in December 2012. The invitation to The Delhi Walla was for a preview of the “revamped and relocated” Change of Guard ceremony. As promised, the caparisoned horses were sleekly muscled, powerful and well-groomed, and the ceremony “visually appealing”. Like most of the general public, I was largely under the impression that the gates at the top of Raisina Hill are opened only for Very Important People. Not true. The Change of Guard ceremony has been open to the public since 2007. And President Pranab Mukherjee, I was told, is keen to ensure that the vast
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXXV, Mehrauli Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - December 17, 2012April 17, 20131 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 35th 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, a multi-volume novel sometimes also known as Remembrance of Things Past. 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 outside the family graveyard of former Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad. This enclosure is within the complex of Khwaja Qutub Kaki’s Dargah in Mehrauli, South Delhi. The tombs belong to the relatives of Ahmad but he himself was buried elsewhere in
City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Ring Road Style by The Delhi Walla - December 15, 2012December 15, 20123 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man on the Ring Road. He was wearing a blue salwar kurta. His dark-blue jacket was printed with hundreds of delicately shaped green leaves, while the flowers were in purple, red, yellow and white. Like the rest of his attire, the man’s sandals, too, were in a tint of blue. His hair was jet-black. He was driving an auto-rickshaw. There was no one dressed like him. According to the Delhi Motor Vehicles Rules, the traffic police are powered to extract a fine of Rs 100 from an auto driver if he is not wearing the prescribed grey-coloured uniform. The moral fiber of our auto driver, therefore,
City Video – Nobody Can Love You More, GB Road The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - December 13, 2012December 13, 20124 Watched by thousands of people. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Penguin India, the publishers of The Delhi Walla’s new book, Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, sent me a mail: The video for the book has done extremely well online for us! We shared it twice on our Facebook page. The first time we shared it, the results were phenomenal. - It had almost 69,000 post views - About 500 likes and 40 shares The second time, it was even better! - We had more than 71,700 post views -