City Monument – Subz Burj, Central Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - February 28, 2014July 31, 20140 A mysterious blue. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In the evening, it looks frail. At night, it is barely perceptible. During the day, it is a dust-cloaked apparition. The dome of Subz Burz should have looked subz (green). Instead, the tiles are blue. The 16th tomb in central Delhi is an unsolved mystery. Who built it and for whom? We don’t know. A large number of Delhiwallas are unaware of its true name, and, quite logically, call it Neela Gumbad – the blue dome. In the beginning, the dome was decorated with green tiles - some of them have survived to this day and can still be seen. A few guidebooks tell us that the Archaeological Survey of India replaced the green
City Library – Jhampan Mookerjee’s Books, Gurgaon Library by The Delhi Walla - February 26, 2014February 26, 20143 A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One mildly-warm dusty noon, The Delhi Walla knocks on the door of Jhampan Mookerjee. In his fifties, he lives in an apartment in Gurgaon with his thousand books, three dogs, two children and one wife. “I have the first edition set of all the 10 volumes of Salim Ali’s Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan,” says Mr Mookerjee. “Each of them is inscribed with Salim Ali’s signature.” A former journalist, Mr Mookerjee has made TV documentaries on environment – one “exciting” project focused on cow dung as an energy resource. He now works as a wildlife conservationist, and naturally, has many books on trees and flowers, and also on wildlife. “This is
City List – Dancing Girls & Boys, 18th Century Delhi Delhi by List by The Delhi Walla - February 24, 2014July 31, 20150 A few famous names. [Compiled by Mayank Austen Soofi] During the reign of Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah, a young man from Hyderabad called Dargah Quli Khan stayed in Delhi from 1739 to 1741. Muraqqa e Dehli, his diary of those years, contains observations on the city’s cultural and religious life, which includes his insights on Delhi’s famous dancing girls and boys. The Delhi Walla cherry-picks a few. 1. Ad Begum She paints her legs with beautiful designs that look like pajamas, but she doesn’t actually put on one – even when she is dancing in a gathering. 2. Saras Roop Highly admired for her dancing, her singing is like a breath of fresh air for the weary soul. The aroma of her verses is fast spreading
City Landmark – Three Delhi Friends, Old Connaught Place Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 22, 2014February 22, 20144 A Capital ritual. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the story of three men in their mid-80s who meet every Sunday in Connaught Place for coffee. The rendezvous always lasts 2 hours, starting 10.30am. The friends have been following the custom for more than half a century. No matter if on that day there is a birth in their families, or a wedding, or — as happened once — a medical emergency. “We have never admitted a fourth person in our circle,” says the soft-spoken Yash Paal Vij. “Each of us gets his turn to pay the bill,” says the hearty Satya Pal Sethi. Madan Gopal Gupta, who completes the trinity, is not present. His wife has just returned home
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Supriya Chatterjee, Gurgaon Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - February 20, 2014February 20, 20140 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 early 2013, The Delhi Proustians started taking Les confidences de salon (Drawing room confessions) around the city to explore people’s lives, thoughts, values and experiences. The series involves interviews across Delhi and is conducted by writers Manika Dhama and Mayank Austen Soofi. For the sixteenth installment of Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire, Supriya Chatterjee, general manager in a consulting firm, made confessions to Manika at her office in Gurgaon. Your favorite virtue or the
City Food – Migrant’s Meal, Tagore Road Food by The Delhi Walla - February 18, 20143 By the homeless, for the homeless. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s 9pm. The cart is barely visible in the dark. But the stack of lukewarm puris sits on it like a beacon, illuminated by the gas lamp. The pale glow of the light is reflected off a blue plastic mug, half-filled with mango pickle. Two large vessels, each covered with a thali (plate), are in the shadows. One has aloo subzi; the other is filled with rice. This little mobile establishment, rather inviting to the hungry, is one of a dozen similar food carts lining Tagore Road, opposite the Ajmeri Gate exit of New Delhi railway station, very close to the sleek Airport Metro Express building. These thelas, or carts, are
City Book – Nobody Can Love You More, First Paperback Edition The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - February 16, 2014February 16, 20145 On Delhi's red light district. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Hot off the press. In February 2014, Penguin Books India published the first paperback edition of Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, a book by The Delhi Walla that first arrived in the world in a hardbound format. Here is the book's description as seen on its back cover: The sex workers of Kotha No. 300 raise their children, cook for their lovers, visit temples, shrines and mosques, complain about pimps and brothel owners, listen to film songs, and solicit and entertain customers. By following the daily lives of the denizens of one kotha, Mayank Austen Soofi paints an intimate portrait of women for whom sex is work—a way to make
City Landmark – Ram Chander & Sons, Connaught Place Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 14, 20140 India's oldest toy store. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The pillars outside the corridor have been repainted. The adjacent Odeon Cinema has been taken over by a multiplex chain. Elsewhere, most familiar landmarks have given way to junk food outlets and retail chain showrooms. But Ram Chander & Sons, which claims to be India’s oldest toy shop, has survived. Here, Indira Gandhi bought toys for her sons. Sonia Gandhi would come to buy Christmas trees. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a regular till he became prime minister. Situated since 1935 in the D-Block of Connaught Place, Delhi’s colonial-era shopping district, Ram Chander has chugged along with the market’s fluctuating fortunes, so far resisting the easy-money temptation of converting into a franchise store.
City Travel – Views of Paris, Around Town Travel by The Delhi Walla - February 10, 2014February 12, 20147 Made in France. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In Paris, The Delhi Walla spent many many hours in streets, gardens, bookstores, restaurants and graveyards. I also visited landmarks associated with the life and work of novelist Marcel Proust. When it was time to leave the city, I wanted to stay back and lead a life colored with a new set of manners, memories, traditions and personal history. But I'm back in Delhi, along with souvenirs of Paris. Another world is here 1b. 1a. 1c. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 7a. 8. 9. 10. 10a. 11. 11a. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. (Photo by JMS)
Delhi Proustians – Cemetery of Montparnasse, Paris Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - February 7, 2014February 7, 20141 Searching for Proust's people. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the address of a number of people who were related to novelist Marcel Proust. The Delhi Walla is in the cemetery of Montparnasse, on the left bank of Paris. The tomb of writer-feminist Simone de Beauvoir, covered with lipstick marks made by her devotees, is adjacent to the entrance. But I’m looking for Charles Baudelaire, Proust’s most beloved poet. Man Ray, the only photographer to have taken a photo of Proust on his deathbed, too, is lying here. I’m also hunting for the grave of Brassaï, the photographer of nighttime Paris who died shortly after finishing work on his study of Proust. Samuel Beckett, who wrote a landmark manifesto on