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Month: April 2013

Photo Essay – The Delhiwallas, Then & Now

by The Delhi Walla - 5

The way we were. [Text and coloured photos by Mayank Austen Soofi; black & white photos by India Photo Archive Foundation] "A photograph never grows old,” said Albert Einstein. “You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a photograph always remains the same.” But the way we look at photos does change. The Delhi Walla recently walked into an exhibition called Re-imaging: The People of India (1850-2013). It displayed pictures taken in the 1850s and 1860s next to images taken in early 2013 by four photographers. The exhibition was organized by the India Photo Archive Foundation. It presented the 19th century “bunnea”, “marwaree” and “scarf maker”, as seen by British lensmen, along with the 21st century Baniya, Marwari

Mission Delhi – Jyoti Mariyam Hora, Indian Christian Cemetery

by The Delhi Walla - 0

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] How to find her? The Delhi Walla is at the Indian Christian Cemetery in Paharganj. I’m looking for Jyoti Mariyam Hora. A few days ago The Indian Express carried a report about her on an inside page: For Jharkhand girls, Delhi was to be a fresh start, not the end Khunti: It could not have been an easy decision for Jyoti Mariyam Hora, 10, to leave Khunti and head for Delhi. Though her best friend, Jayamani Guria, accompanied Jyoti, leaving behind her five siblings and alcoholic father should have wieghed heavily on her mind. Her mother had died when she was a toddler. They boarded the Swarna Jayanti Express to Delhi on

City List – Resident Birds, Lodhi Garden

by The Delhi Walla - 2

Delhi by list. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Spread over 80 acres, Lodhi Garden was developed around four monuments. A village called Khairpur was erased to give way to this urban oasis. The garden was originally named after Lady Willingdon, wife of India’s Governor-General, who inaugurated it in 1936. The park has a glass house, a bonsai park, a rose garden, a bamboo garden, and an herbal garden; and it is also home to 28 varieties of birds. 1. Green Parakeet Local name – Tota 2. Weaver bird Local name – Baya 3. Pied Cuckoo Local name – Kala Papeeha 4. Black Headed Myna Local name – Puhya 5. Common Myna Local name – Desi

City Culture – De Bhasar, Nehru Place

by The Delhi Walla - 1

The philosophy of nonsense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Tumri maa ko choot number Apni maa choot walle The Delhi Walla saw this Devnagri calligraphy by an unknown Bhasarian artist at an office basement in Nehru Place, a commercial district in South Delhi. The sense of the lines is unclear but two words stand out: maa is Hindi for mother and choot refers to vagina. This is the eighth instance that I have come face-to-face with De Bhasar movement in Delhi. (Click here to view the first exhibit.) According to Wikipedia, De Bhasar or Bhasarism is a cultural movement that began in Nantes, France, during the post 9/11 Gulf War, reaching a tipping point between 2007 to 2009. The movement involves graphic designs

City Hangout – Castro Café, Jamia Millia Islamia

by The Delhi Walla - 2

The ideas den. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The floor is of Kota stone. The benches have wooden sheesham tops. There are no doors. Designed by the Delhi-based Romi Khosla Design Studio, this is Castro Café in Jamia Millia Islamia. It looks out on a garden and stays open till 7pm. The staff wear gloves. The house cat is called Adrian. A students’ canteen, Castro Café first came to notice in 2008 when it featured on the cover of The Modern Architecture of New Delhi, a photo-heavy volume featuring landmarks like the India Habitat Centre, Lotus Temple and the American embassy building. The book called the “semi-open air café” a “blur of the inside and the outside through a space that

The Reuters Interview – On Nobody Can Love You More

by The Delhi Walla - 2

Life in a red light district. [By Atish Patel] Atish Patel of Reuters discussed Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, a book by The Delhi Walla. Click here to read it on the agency’s website, or see below. SUSHMA LOOKS like she is in her late forties; she is not sure about her age. It is not her real name but the one she goes by in New Delhi's red light district. Every morning at 2:30 a.m., she wakes up, drinks a cup of tea and paints her face with make-up before stepping out into the street to look for men who will pay her around two dollars to have sex. Sushma is among the women, men and children living

Photo Essay – A Sleeping Man, Outside Humayun’s Tomb

by The Delhi Walla - 1

Evening dreams. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla was walking in the garden outside the ticket window of Humayun’s Tomb. The grass was covered with dry leaves. The traffic sounds of Mathura Road were soaring above towards the blue-black sky and gradually fading into a low hum. A few boys were playing cricket on one side of the grassy ground. Under a green Amaltas tree (it would soon be clothed with golden-yellow flowers), a burqa-clad woman took out her leather chappal and gave it to her male companion who started to examine it intently. Meanwhile, a barefoot man continued to sleep on the ground. Morning is far away, sir 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

City Notice – On The Delhi Proustians

by The Delhi Walla - 8

No longer a Proust-virgin. [Photos by Divya Babu] The Delhi Walla is finally plucked. This week I finished Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time -- all the seven volumes. As founder of The Delhi Proustians, I’m happy to tell you that the novel is as easy as a beach read. Lost Time has an entertaining mix of poetry and meanness. It is made of love, spite, bad manners, and lots of bitchy ladies, society parties and tittle-tattle. Proust, a half-Jewish homosexual, was obviously an old aunty -- only a yenta could have written this line: Excessively well-bred and immensely boring. Or this: The antiquity of her family, the splendor of her house, the rudeness of her daughter-in-law. Or this: Ah, Beethoven!

Mission Delhi – Aliya Sayyed, Mehrauli

by The Delhi Walla - 4

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There she is. Now, she is over there -- her frock ballooning around her. Is she real or just a smudge of pink? This moment she is laughing. This moment she is silent. This moment she is on the stairs. The Delhi Walla meets her in the dargah of Khwaja Qutubbudin Kaki in Mehrauli. It is the city’s first Sufi shrine. The girl’s frock is embedded with glass beads. She is wearing a necklace of white pearls. Seated beside an unknown tomb, she is piloting a helicopter. “Will you fly with me?” She asks. “But I don’t know you,” I say. “I’m six-year-old. I have four brothers and one sister. My

City Food – Paratha, Around Town

by The Delhi Walla - 3

Best at any hour. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is one thing paratha enthusiasts will agree upon -- the wheat flour disks fried on a shallow pan have unlimited versions. At its simplest, a paratha is crisp and a little salty or flavoured with azwain. It grows in complexity as it comes stuffed with potatoes, onions, cauliflower, radish, methi leaves, eggs, keema, or even last night's leftover daal. In Chandni Chowk, the legendary Parathewaali Gali is now reduced to four eateries dedicated exclusively to parathas -- and is still worth a try. One shop, since 1875, has a notice informing customers that the Maharajah of Kashmir once dined here. The adjacent shop, since 1872, has a framed picture of

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