Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Neyaz Akhtar, Hotel Shalimar City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - January 14, 2014June 3, 20157 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Neyaz Akhtar on the roof of Hotel Shalimar in Gali Murgan, a street in the Old Quarter. In his early 30s, Mr Akhtar is writing a novel; he makes his living by freelancing as a “ghost writer” for knowledge process outsourcing companies. Mr Akhtar lives alone in a windowless room in Shalimar. He says, “I believe you are either a poet or you are not. You don't become one. All you do is to try to find out if there is poetry in you. If it is there, it will come out by itself. At the right time... when you are ready for it.
Dateline Delhi – Man Has Unnatural Sex with Dog, Clip 1 General by The Delhi Walla - January 13, 2014January 13, 20141 Reporting from the capital. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla keenly reads the city pages of national dailies in search of weirdly disturbing/amusing newspaper reports on our capital's daily life. Here’s the first part – as seen in Hindustan Times. A 55-year-old married man was arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly having unnatural sex with a dog in a park located near Govindpuri metro station in south Delhi on Friday. Devki Nandan Nautiyal, a resident of Faridabad, lured the dog who belonged to a tea vendor whose stall is near the Metro station by offering it bread. He then took the dog to the nearby park, the police said. The owner of the dog saw Nautiyal having unnatural sex with the dog and
Photo Essay – Mobile Phone, Around Town Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - January 11, 2014January 15, 20142 Text me. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One day in 2013 The Delhi Walla's Sony Xperia stopped working. It felt as if my wife had died. The touch-screen phone had everything I would need if I were to be stranded on a deserted island — my Gmail, my Google, my six Jane Austen e-novels, and my contact list of more than 500 phone numbers. The most crushing thing was the loss of the hundreds of special text messages I had exchanged and saved over the years with some very special people. Many a lonely evening I’d relived old memories rereading those precious SMSes. Now, the archive of my recent history was lost. The first evening following the tragedy, I walked, and walked, in
City Culture – Brecht in Delhi, Sri Ram Centre Culture by The Delhi Walla - January 10, 2014January 10, 20140 Good persons of our capital. [Text and photos by Manika Dhama] On the Christmas Eve of 2013 theatre enthusiasts lined up outside the Sri Ram Centre in Central Delhi to meet Ramkali, the central character in ASMITA Theatre Group’s adaption of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan. This adaptation of the famous and theatrically challenging play was directed by Arvind Gaur, known for his innovative and thought-provoking work. In the crowded theatre packed with people seated even in the aisles, the show began with a setting on the streets of Delhi. Three Gods descend on earth in search of a night shelter and after a laborious search by the humble water-seller are graciously accommodated by Ramkali (Shui Ta in the original), a
City Monument – Safdarjung’s Tomb, Aurobindo Marg Monuments by The Delhi Walla - January 8, 2014January 10, 20142 A melancholic spectacle. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The mausoleum of Mughal aristocrat Safdarjung (1754), with its stained sandstone walls and inadequate marble, reflects the twilight years of a great empire. The ruin looks very sad and beautiful and perplexing -- like an unfinished poem. Considered to be the last large Mughal building erected in India (the first being Humayun’s Tomb), the white marble used on the dome was stripped from the nearby mausoleum of an early Mughal noble called Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana. But the plunder was not enough and so pink sandstone was used to finish off the incomplete patches of white. Despite the fact that Safdarjun's Tomb looks like an out-of-focus impression of Humayun's Tomb, it has a
City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Karol Bagh Style by The Delhi Walla - January 6, 2014January 6, 20143 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla finds this man standing beside a bus shelter in the central neighbourhood of Karol Bagh. He is wearing a light brown bandhgala suit. The matching light brown leather shoes are covered with dust. The judgmental eyes of insensitive fashion magazine editors will not favour him with a second look. Yet. A sincere style statement does not limit itself to a carefully considered dress scheme. Indeed, sometimes it transcends the cuts of the clothes and brings out the hidden beauty of the person who is wearing them. The man’s ill-fitting outfit succeeds in highlighting the noble aspects of his character. Although the impersonal city is circling around him in many
Delhi Metro – Jahangir Puri, Yellow Line Delhi Metro by The Delhi Walla - January 3, 2014January 3, 20142 The final frontier. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold morning The Delhi Walla travelled on the yellow line of the metro train and got off at Jahangir Puri, the route’s last destination in the north-west. At the exit gate, the overhead metro station took the form of a gigantic industrial complex, and the commuters who walked out of the escalators mutated into newly-constructed robots. A vegetable seller pushing his cart under the station’s pedestrian bridge provided the sole confirmation of humanity. By this hour, the GT-Karnal Road, teeming with Delhi Transport Corporation buses and auto-rickshaws, had expanded into a ribbon of dust. I parked myself on the adjacent street. It was bordered with factories; their tin sheds had rusted to shades
City Hangout – The New Shahpur Jat, South Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - January 2, 2014January 2, 20142 The lesser village. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Shahpur Jat Village can never have the strut of the nearby Hauz Khas Village. If optimists believe otherwise, then the closure of Bookwise in November 2013 should clear that up. One of the earliest shopping landmarks in this predominantly rural south Delhi neighbourhood, the coffee table bookstore regularly hosted literary events, including meetings of the serious-sounding E. M. Forster Literary Society. With unsold books lying packed in giant cardboard boxes, the owner told The Delhi Walla that he downed shutters because of “no business”. Even if you concede that brick-and-mortar bookshops are fast becoming an obsolete concept, a walk around Shahpur Jat’s rutty lanes will show you that this place, unlike the