Atget’s Corner – 561-565, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 30, 20140 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 25,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Each day five randomly picked pictures from this collection will be put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 561 to 565. 561. Janpath 562. Ghalib's
Mission Delhi – The 50-Dates-Woman, Basant Lok Market Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 29, 20141 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This 32-year-old anonymous woman has a reputation. Since July 2014 she has been regularly dating different men — a few of them even visiting her south Delhi pad. The curious thing is that many people in this city and beyond keep themselves updated with her private adventures. That is because she is telling it all on her blog 50 Dates In Delhi, a self-proclaimed experiment in social anthropology in which she plans to date 50 men. “The goal after all,” she says in a cheekily written post, “is to see if there are 50 men I could go on one date with.” The woman met one more
Atget’s Corner – 556-560, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 28, 20140 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 25,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Each day five randomly picked pictures from this collection will be put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 556 to 560. 556. Ambience Mall 557.
City Monument – Turkman Gate, Asaf Ali Road Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 27, 2014October 27, 20141 The Walled City guardian. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi’s greatly diminished boundary wall once had 14 gateways. Each gate was named for the direction it faced, save one. That gate, named after the Sufi saint Hazrat Shah Turkman Bayabani, is the only one that still throbs to the daily rhythms of its neighbourhood. The Mughal-era Turkman Gate — one of the four gates that have survived — is flanked by a police post and the multi-storeyed Delhi Stock Exchange. Looking out over the slow-moving autorickshaws, cars and buses, the gateway stands at the border of Old and New Delhi, just like its seemingly identical counterparts in Ajmeri Gate and Dilli Gate. But Ajmeri Gate lies ignored outside the
Atget’s Corner – 551-555, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 27, 20140 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 25,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Each day five randomly picked pictures from this collection will be put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 551 to 555. 551. Mathura Road 552.
Atget’s Corner – 546-550, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 26, 2014October 26, 20140 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 25,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Each day five randomly picked pictures from this collection will be put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 546 to 550. 546. Lodhi Garden 547.
City Style – A Slender Woman in White, Harish Chander Mathur Lane Style by The Delhi Walla - October 24, 2014June 19, 20154 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She is wearing a cotton silk white vintage dress with black piping stripes and pearl buttons. Her nose ring is barely perceptible. The Delhi Walla meets this slender woman one warm evening on Central Delhi’s Harish Chander Mathur Lane. The woman says her dog died. She went to Goa to recover and returned only a day or two ago. “I did paragliding and went fishing with a fisherman,” she says. “Had lots of fresh juices and also read some (Arthur) Schopenhauer on the beach.” The woman’s left arm shows a tattoo – Vesta dans mon coeur. “It means ‘Vesta in my heart’ in French,” she says. “Vesta is my dog’s name.”
Delhi Proustians – Becoming Marcel, Hazrat Nizamuddin East Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - October 22, 2014October 22, 20142 Living a literary fantasy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is 9 pm. The Delhi Walla is in the guest room of a friend’s apartment in Delhi’s fashionable Hazrat Nizamuddin East, along with a bedside lamp, a silver coffee pot and two croissants. I switch off all the lights, get into bed with a notebook and pen, and turn on the lamp. Propped against two pillows, my face lies hidden in the shadows. I am Marcel Proust. After reading his seven-volume novel In Search of Lost Time in 2013, I longed to experience Proust’s exhausting writing hours. The French author rested during the day and wrote at night; still the book took 13 years of his life. I’m recreating this
City Moment – Death of a Man, Pahari Gosht Wali Moments by The Delhi Walla - October 21, 2014October 21, 20140 The remarkable Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The man had died last night. The Delhi Walla stood outside his home on the Walled City’s Gosht Wali Pahari, the hill of the meat. The man was washed, shrouded in a white cotton cloth, brought out on the narrow lane, and laid outside a grocery, beside the yellow crates of Mother Dairy milk packets. The man was surrounded by many men. A few minutes later a woman emerged out of the man’s house. She was wearing a black burqa. One of the men uncovered the man’s face. The woman looked at the face and returned to the house. A girl dressed in her college uniform walked past the man. The mourners made way for
City Culture – Pissing Men, India Gate & Elsewhere Culture by The Delhi Walla - October 20, 2014October 20, 20142 Urination is prohibited. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The two men were urinating against the monumental backdrop of India Gate. One of them, a photographer who refused to give his name, was defiant: “I take pictures of tourists. I had an emergency and the toilet is far from here and I cannot lose customers… so I’m doing it here.” It was only a few days ago that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India drive from Rajpath, against the backdrop of India Gate. The New Delhi Municipal Council did its bit by plastering dozens of posters around the traffic circle, headlined “Papa!! Ho Ho, Shame, Shame! You are urinating in public!” The next day, a