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Month: June 2013

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Mayank Austen Soofi, Fresc Co

by The Delhi Walla - 6

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 he attended at ages 13 and 20 in the late 19th century. In 2013, The Delhi Proustians takes Les confidences de salon (Drawing room confessions) around the city to explore people’s lives, thoughts, values and experiences. This series would involve interviews across Delhi and will be conducted by Manika Dhama and Mayank Austen Soofi. Dhama is an investment consultant with a real estate firm. She lives in NOIDA, works in Gurgaon and reads/writes in between. Her poem featured in ‘Delhi’s Bandaged Moments’ and she

City Moment – The Circumcision, Ghaffar Manzil

by The Delhi Walla - 4

The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla attended the khatna, the circumcision, of a Muslim boy. The ceremony took place at his home in the South Delhi neighbourhood of Ghaffar Manzil. Adjusting the topi on his head, the 10-year-old said, “I’m not scared.” He was dressed in white. It was the sunset hour and the living room was filling up with guests - all were men. After the barber arrived, the boy’s father put a garland around his son’s neck, asking him to take off his pajama. A red lungi was tied around his legs. The mother watched from behind a door. The men sat in a circle around the boy. He was made to sit on

The Biblio Cover – On Nobody Can Love You More

by The Delhi Walla - 3

Life in a red light district. [Photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The May-June 2013 issue of Biblio: A Review of Books, India’s most prestigious literary journal, showcases Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, a book by The Delhi Walla, on its front page. The cover picture is taken from inside the book. The journal has excerpted the book’s first chapter, which is titled I Had Come Too Far. To read it, you may buy Biblio, or you may get a copy of the book. Here is the first paragraph of the first chapter of Nobody Can Love You More: Take Sushma. No single cataclysmic event changed the progression of her life. One day led to another. The

City Walk –Weeping Fig Way, Near Humayun’s Tomb

by The Delhi Walla - 1

The tree-lined path. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The narrow dust track is guarded on both sides by the weeping fig (Ficus benjamina). The path is so small that you could walk its entire length in two minutes. Situated in the semi-wild garden outside the entrance of Humayun’s Tomb, this tree-lined corridor is one of the most beautiful places in Delhi. It is like a city secret but it is not naturally secretive. Nearby in the grassy expanse, boys play cricket and picnicking families lounge. The trail remains hidden within the weeping fig, so named because its branches are said to hang down in the manner of a weeping person. The tree has wide aerial roots; it shoots out

Photo Essay – The Resting Labourers, Connaught Place

by The Delhi Walla - 4

The lunch hour. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One afternoon The Delhi Walla came across a team of daily-wage labourers in Connaught Place, the city’s colonial-era commercial district. They were building a low brick-wall in a parking area. All the men hailed from the same village in Bihar and all of them shared a single-room tenement in nearby Paharganj as their residence. It was the lunch hour – also a time to rest. Some men were lounging on the wall-in-progress; some were lying sprawled on the pavement. One had his head placed upon his yellow work-helmet; one had turned his lunch box into a pillow -- his eyes were wide-open but he appeared to be in the middle of some dream.

City Library – Nishat Fatima’s Books, Greater Kailash-I

by The Delhi Walla - 5

A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla knocks on the door of Nishat Fatima. In her thirties, Ms Fatima lives in a second-floor apartment in Greater-Kailash I, a south Delhi neighbourhood. Her library has about a dozen books. “This is what happens when you move houses,” she says. “You can’t carry all your books with you.” Seven months ago, Ms Fatima shifted base from her hometown Hyderabad. She was appointed as the editor of fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar India. “I came with a suitcase – only a suitcase. It had only one book: (Umberto Eco’s) The Name of the Rose. The novel reminded me of (Orhan Pamuk’s) My Name is Red because of its emphasis

City Hangout – Dining Room & Lounge, India International Centre

by The Delhi Walla - 5

Dining with the VIPs. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Request the fifth table on the right. For before he became president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam would take his vegetarian thali there. The table was also preferred by late prime minister V.P. Singh. Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has dined at the same spot. The Dining Room at the India International Centre (IIC) feeds those people who feed our daily news feeds: politicians, bureaucrats, editors, Supreme Court lawyers, authors, painters, actors and other similarly-moulded personages. This first-floor hall and the sunnier Lounge downstairs offer a window into a Delhi institution that was conceived “for the deepening of true and thoughtful understanding between peoples and nations”. Ranjana Sengupta, author of Delhi Metropolitan: The Making of an

Geetanjali Chitnis’s Review – On Nobody Can Love You More

by The Delhi Walla - 3

Life in a red light district. [By Geetanjali Chitnis; photo by Marina Bang] Bangalore-based writer Geetanjali Chitnis discussed Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, a book by The Delhi Walla in her blog, which is named after her. Go to the blog to read the review, or see below. MY FIRST serious attempt at reading non-fiction. You need to run with the flow, right from the beginning. It feels like one is being thrown into the deep end, so questioning the style or the author’s choices is futile. In his book Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi's Red Light District, Mayank Austen Soofi is like a guide, and as a reader, it is your job to

Mission Delhi – Salim Khan, Kasturba Gandhi Marg

by The Delhi Walla - 3

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He picks a slab of butter, takes out a slice of bread, breaks open an egg, chops a tomato, picks another slab of butter. These actions are taking place almost at the same moment. The Delhi Walla meets Salim Khan on a pavement off Kasturba Gandhi Marg. It is evening and Mr Khan, 36, is making omelet-bread for his customers, most of whom work in nearby offices. He is handing a toast to one, accepting payment from another, and listening to instructions of yet another (“more butter and no green chillies”). A few more are patiently trying to catch his attention. As the evening advances and the crowd

City Season – The Yellow Amaltas, Prithviraj Marg

by The Delhi Walla - 4

The summer dream. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] June in Delhi is a hot month. But the summer has its consolations -- and The Delhi Walla is not implying the midnight car rides to India Gate for ice cream. Drive around the city’s slow-roasting circles and avenues and you will find them awash in yellow -- the colour of amaltas, or laburnum. In April, the trees were stark naked. A month later, they are laden with blossoms -- it’s on a bed of these very flowers that actors Madhubala and Dilip Kumar shared some romantic moments in the 1960 film Mughal-e-Azam. Perhaps one of the best places to see amaltas in bloom is in north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, where the trees

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