City Portraits – 100 Delhiwallas & Proust, New Year Special

City Portraits – 100 Delhiwallas & Proust, New Year Special

Celebrating a century. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The year 2013 was special. The Delhi Walla finished reading all the seven volumes of Marcel Proust’s wildly entertaining novel In Search of Lost Time. 2013 was also the centenary…

City Season - Winter Sun, Connaught Place

City Season – Winter Sun, Connaught Place

Spring in the winter. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi winter is composed of thick fog and gray skies. But The Delhi Walla is in a park in Connaught Place and the December sky is clear blue….

Letter from England - Kaloo, Part II

Letter from England – Kaloo, Part II

Life in a new land. [Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; photos from Marina Bang] Can a Delhi dog feel at home in the smog-free English countryside? In October 2013, The Delhi Walla described his farewell meeting with Kaloo, a former…

City Hangout - Café Lota & Other Such Places, Around Town

City Hangout – Café Lota & Other Such Places, Around Town

Delhi’s artsy cafes. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is acres of space between the restaurant tables, making each one its own little universe — art students economize by sharing a few snacks, the NGO activists bemoan the…

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Supriya Anand, Noida Sector 44

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Supriya Anand, Noida Sector 44

The Proustian self-introspection. [By The Delhi Proustians] The Proust Questionnaire represents a form of interview that owes its structure to answers given by French novelist Marcel Proust, the author of In Search of Lost Time, at two birthday parties that…

City Landmark – Steam Engine, Copernicus Marg

City Landmark – Steam Engine, Copernicus Marg

Made in London. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This little steam engine looks like a toy, but it is real and has a name – MTR No. 1. The maroon locomotive in central Delhi’s India Gate circle has…

City Season  – Cold Mist, Jama Masjid

City Season – Cold Mist, Jama Masjid

The winter’s tale. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One freezing December morning the unthinkable happened. Jama Masjid vanished. The Delhi Walla tried hard to look for the grand Mughal-era mosque but it had left the city. Shivering with…

Delhi Proustians - Swann's Way, Anniversary Edition

Delhi Proustians – Swann’s Way, Anniversary Edition

On turning 100. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Of course you have read this book. But not everybody is like you. Apparently a large part of the world is scared of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time,…

Mission Delhi - Madhusudan Srivastava, Vasundhara

Mission Delhi – Madhusudan Srivastava, Vasundhara

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An amateur musician, he is sitting silently on the stairs. The Delhi Walla meets Madhusudan Srivastava in an apartment complex in suburban Vasundhra. “My friend…

City Books – Tintin in Delhi, Around Town

City Books – Tintin in Delhi, Around Town

Travails in India. [By Mayank Austen Soofi; the above photo was taken in Calcutta] Tintin has been to Delhi. A creation of Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the famous reporter-adventurer has traveled across the world, including India. Sadly, the red-haired hero and…