City Books – Red Light Chat on YouTube, Chennai The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - March 29, 20131 Discussing the book on GB Road. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] In February 2013, as part of the The Hindu Lit for Life literature festival, The Delhi Walla was invited to Chennai to talk about his book Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District. Chennai-based entrepreneur and activist Ranvir Shah conducted the session Mean Streets with me and Bombay-based Meenal Baghel, the author of Death in Mumbai. We both read out excerpts from our respective books after which Mr Shah asked us a few mean questions. Click here to watch the session on YouTube. In Chennai Available in book stores and shopping websites across India
Mission Delhi – Achhuta Nandan, Prithviraj Marg Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - March 23, 2013March 23, 20131 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is sitting still. The Delhi Walla sees him on Prithviraj Marg, an avenue in the central part of the city, which is lined on both sides with residences of some of the country’s richest industrialists. I walk towards him and (hesitantly) sit down by his side. He is holding a ten-rupee note in his fist. “Sir, hello.” He raises his eyes and says something inaudible. “What did you say, sir?” He seems to repeat himself but his voice is too faint. “Yes?” “Acchutananandan,” or that's what he seems to say. “Achhuta Nandan?” He nods with a slow motion of his head. “You live here?” “I… (inaudible)… rail tracks.” He is speaking very slowly as
Photo Essay – The Delhi Beards, Around Town Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - March 21, 2013April 12, 20133 The hairy portraits. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla is a keen devotee of the beards of Delhiwallas. Some men, thanks to their long flowing beards, look like spiritual brothers of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. A few beards look as grey and melancholic as that of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor. One tailor in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti looks like a twin of Vietnamese statesman Ho Chi Minh. I’m still looking for a Lenin. Into the forest 1. 2. 3. 3a 4. 4a. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
The Financial Express Review – On Nobody Can Love You More The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - March 19, 2013March 19, 20131 Life in a red light district. [By Sukalp Sharma] Sukalp Sharma discussed Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, a book by The Delhi Walla in The Financial Express. Click here to read it on the newspaper’s website, or see below. I STILL found myself coming to the kotha, fascinated by the ordinary aspects of the lives of people who, I think, have been shepherded by circumstances into living extraordinary lives. It was in an attempt to seek signs of normalcy in an 'abnormal' world that I started to work on this book." Mayank Austen Soofi is well known in the Delhi circuit for his guidebooks to the city and his blog. But the opening lines of this
City Food – Julia Child Makes Tomato Pappu in Dwarka Food Julia Child's Delhi by The Delhi Walla - March 17, 2013March 17, 20132 The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of Dwarka, an expansive settlement of residential apartments, bleak-looking malls and many many metro stations. In her 30s, Ruchira Hoon lives with her husband, Snehesh Philip, at a book-lined house in Sector 7 -- most books are on food. “I bond with food. Deeply. Emotionally. I like to chop, stir, cook and bake. And then I like to share... If you can't share what you enjoy the most, well then you're just a stingy-poo. I ain't one. I like to feed people,” writes Ms Hoon in her food blog Cookaroo. She started it in February 2012 at a time “when I was depressed and didn’t
City List – Delhi Blogs, Alive & Dead Delhi by List by The Delhi Walla - March 15, 2013August 7, 20132 Delhi by list. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The multicultural megapolis Delhi should have dozens of hyper-local blogs exclusively dedicated to its distinct neighborhoods, peoples, monuments, cuisines and lifestyles. One day the city might get all those blogs. In the second of the City List series, The Delhi Walla gives you names and addresses of blogs that focus on the capital. Some of these are no longer uploaded but they make for an interesting read. The list will continue to be updated. 1. A Date With Delhi adatewithdelhi.wordpress.com/ 2. Akanksha Redhu akanksharedhu.com 2a. Compulsive Confessions compulsiveconfessions.com 3. Confessionz of a Closet confessionzofacloset.blogspot.in/ 3a. Cookaroo thegreatcookaroo.com 4. Delhi Bound delhibound.com 4a. Delhi Events delhievents.com 5. Delhi Expat Club delhiexpatclub.com 6. Delhi Foodies’ Zone delhifoodies.blogspot.in 7. Delhi Heritage Walks blog.delhiheritagewalks.com 8. Delhi Heritage Walks with Sohail Hashmi delhiwithsohailhashmi.wordpress.com 9. Delhi Street Food delhistreetfood.blogspot.in 10. Delhi Wonders delhiwonders.com 11. Eat and Dust eatanddust.com 12. Eating Out in Delhi eoid.wordpress.com 13. Little Black Book Delhi littleblackbookdelhi.com 14. Love Struck Cow lovestruckcow.blogspot.in 15. Our Delhi Struggle ourdelhistruggle.com 16. Sarson ke
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Shahwar Kibria, South Extension-I City Poetry General by The Delhi Walla - March 11, 2013June 3, 20154 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Shahwar Kibria outside the showrooms of South Extension-I market. In her early 20s, she works as an editor in a publishing firm. Ms Kibria grew up in Calcutta. Her beloved poets are Jalaluddin Rumi, Charles Baudelaire, Pablo Neruda and Emily Dickinson – these are the names that immediately come to her mind. The list could be longer. “Most authors and poets expect a response of empathy from us,” says Ms Kibria. “But poetry is not this. Free from meanings and throbbing with it, it is just passion. As are all things beautiful.” Ms Kibria is also fond of Saleha Begum Maghfi. “She wrote in Urdu and Persian
The IBNLive Review – On Nobody Can Love You More The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - March 10, 2013March 10, 20133 Life in a red light district. [By Vivek Tejuj] The Bombay-based literary blogger Vivek Tejuja, who manages Of Books and Reading, discussed Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, a book by The Delhi Walla, on the news site IBN Live. Click here to read it on the website, or see below. I AM sure there have been many books written on the red light districts of the country. There are after all so many of them in every city, almost in hiding, in every nook. It is the world's oldest profession and it has been created by the world. So there are no sides that need to be taken. This is precisely what 'Nobody Can Love You
City Season – The Last Mist, India Gate General by The Delhi Walla - March 8, 2013March 8, 20131 A time of the year. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is early March. The coldness in Delhi’s air is arriving at an end. One early morning The Delhi Walla went to India Gate maidan in the center of the capital. There I walked amid the last of the season’s mist. Ignorant of the changing time of the year, the pale white fog was still taking itself seriously. It tried to hide the India Gate monument from view. The failed attempt was a clear sign of the fading of winter. In another direction a horizontal layer of vapour wafted down and almost touched the ground’s wet green grass. The cloud-like sheet of blurry white then stopped its movement and remained stationery
City Hangout – Lanes & Localities, Old Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - March 7, 2013May 23, 20220 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once, it was a land of galis (lanes) and kuchas (residential alleys usually inhabited by people having the same occupation). But little remains of Purani Dehli’s canals and tree-lined passageways bespeaking the Mughal era. Windowless hovels and dangling power cables fit the modern description of Old Delhi, aka Shahjahanabad. Its neighbourhoods retain almost nothing of their original character. Even so, swiftly-shifting Old Delhi offers a glimpse of its early days in the place names of its lanes and localities. These identities are derived from professions and peoples, landmarks and landscapes. A stroll helps trace the foundations of a royal capital that endures and thrives. Regular excursions to the Walled City do not mean