City Season – The Sulky Amaltas Trees, Hailey Road
The summer disappointment. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is a most unusual summer. There is only a little yellow here, and that too pale. The Delhi Walla is walking on central Delhi’s Hailey Road, an avenue lined…
City Life – Rain Basera, Chandni Chowk
The home for the homeless [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An abode that comes alive when birds return to their nests—this is the poetic imagery that the term rain basera evokes in an online dictionary. To the prosaic,…
Letter from Paris – The Reluctant Proustian, Marais
Proust’s reader in Proust’s city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is a man of another time. On streets, he is shocked to see women with cigarettes. At home, he paints, and plays piano and cello. In drawing…
City Hangout – Second-hand Books of Paharganj, Central Delhi
Finding thrill in unexpected places. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some go to Paharganj, the backpackers’ ghetto in central Delhi, to have emergency love with lonely foreigners. The Delhi Walla goes for novels they leave behind in the…
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Himanshu Verma, Lado Sarai
The 74th death. [Text by Himanshu Verma; photo by Mehar Jyrwa] Lurking like a cheeky phantom in the country’s art and fashion world, he was the Saree Man of India. Himanshu Verma’s mad eclectic work stood at the cusp of…
Letter from Paris – La Hune is Closing, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Death of a bookshop. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Stop the clocks. Silence the pianos. The double-storey La Hune is to shut down permanently. Tucked in the heart of the most beautiful part of Paris, it is one…
Delhi Archives – JLN Stadium Station, Near Lodhi Road
[Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] Most Delhiwallas have grown to think of Metro stations as places to push each other into rail coaches. The Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium station in central Delhi is different. A cynic might…
Atget’s Corner – 806-810, Delhi Photos
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,…
Letter from Paris – Hazrat Marcel Proustuddin’s Dargah, Père Lachaise Cemetery
The secret origins of Marcel Proust. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] O Sheikh Marcel, bless us so that we all can write like you. The Delhi Walla is in the dargah of Hazrat Marcel Proustuddin in Père Lachaise…
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Anamika Chatterjee, Chittaranjan Park
The 73rd death. [Text by Anamika Chatterjee; photo by Sajay Warrier] On the day she passed away, Anamika Chatterjee was found gorging happily on several plates of mutton chops and fish cutlets in the Bengali den of Chittaranjan Park in…
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