Letter from Venice – Country Postcards, Near Adriatic Sea Travel by The Delhi Walla - May 22, 2015May 22, 20153 The Italian nature. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Have you ever cycled through a daydream? The Delhi Walla did. I’m in Venice. One morning I left it for its surrounding country. The day was made of a blue sky. The Alps stood in the distance, the cool air was dense with bird sounds, and the narrow bicycle track was bordered on both sides by trees and streams. The strong breeze kept the clear waters of these streams in a continuous state of agitation. There was barely any other person to be seen on the pathway, though at one point it passed by a village with a church. The old church had a Murano glass chandelier painted in blue, yellow and
City Monument – Jahanara’s Tomb, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Monuments by The Delhi Walla - May 20, 2015June 3, 20151 An open-air mausoleum. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In a city notorious for its hostility to women, a cramped, little-known monument has emerged as their private sanctuary. Even stranger, this unlikely place is tucked into one corner of Delhi’s most famous Sufi shrine, the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, hardly a feminist paradise. To be sure, women can visit the dargah, but they are not permitted to enter the chamber where the 14th century mystic lies buried. Not even Salma Ansari, the vice-president’s wife and a frequent visitor, can enter. There are a number of other graves within the dargah, among them poet Amir Khusro’s. Women are not permitted there either. “I have doubts about the antecedents of this rule,” says Sadia Dehlvi,
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Richard Weiderman, Grand Rapids, Michigan Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - May 20, 2015May 20, 20150 The 72nd death. [Text by Richard Weiderman] Word has reached us of the passing of Richard Weiderman. The cause of his demise has not been reported. Mr Weiderman always considered himself like everyone else, someone pretty much undistinguished from others. Just another bean in the bag. There was much evidence to support his conclusion. At five foot ten inches he was average in height. He was neither handsome nor hideous. Everyone has to have a face, and he had one--an unremarkable, generic one. His was only another face in the crowd. He was, however, a man of many interests. He tried them on for a while before moving on to the next one. He wore each like a new set of clothes, only
Atget’s Corner – 801-805, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - May 19, 2015May 19, 20152 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. Five randomly picked pictures from this collection are regularly 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 801 to 805. 801. India International Center 802. Hazrat
Letter from Venice – Marcel Proust’s Woman, Calle dei Preti Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - May 18, 2015May 18, 20154 A Proustian in Italy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She has read the entire Proust, all the seven volumes of À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. We the English-speakers, of course, know the French novel as In Search of Lost Time. To Enrica Pasquinucci, it is Alla Ricerca Del Tempo Perduto, the Italian title. The Delhi Walla meets Ms Pasquinucci one mildly warm afternoon on the Bridge of the Three Arches. I’m in Venice, making a hajj to this watery land of churches and bridges that was dear to Marcel Proust. Ms Pasquinucci walks me to her home on Cannaregio. Her apartment is on the first landing of an oldish building. The drawing room is filled with books and family
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nandini Nair, Adchini Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - May 18, 2015May 18, 20150 The 71st death. [Text by Nandini Nair; photo by Anupama Sivan] Nandini Nair, reporter and editor, 32, passed away early this morning. She was at her yoga class and was determined to do a handstand. This was despite the warnings of her parents and sister, who always doubted her upper-body strength. The end was swift and her last thoughts flitted between whether she had Harpiced her commode the previous night and if Toni Morrison's new book would be excellent. If she had any last words it would be have been – ‘I should have listened to my family.’ Those who knew Ms Nair (and there weren't too many) believed her to be loyal, funny and stupidly conscientious. They all confessed that she made
City Food – Momos, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - May 17, 2015May 17, 20155 It's not Tibet. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Monuments and the English language are not the only examples of how effortlessly Delhi handled foreign influences and made them its own. On makeshift stalls in South Extension market, migrants from Bihar sell the momos of Tibet. Circular or half-moon shaped pieces of white flour dough, these mouthfuls are filled with vegetables or meat, steamed over a pot of boiling water, and served with fiery-hot red chilli sauce. The outer surface is slightly stingy and it rips open to the squishiness of garlicky stuffing. If the popular stuffing in Lhasa is probably yak meat, in Delhi it is chicken. Vegetarian momos have grated cabbage, carrots and onions. Momos are also served fried on
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Farooq Soomro, Karachi Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - May 15, 2015May 15, 20151 The 70th death. [Text by Farooq Soomro; photo by Waseem Nawaz] A friend once described Farooq Soomro as a chameleon that changes its shades pompously yet blends within its surroundings without ever letting anyone know that it is an outsider. A quintessential Karachi denizen, one could only imagine his death to take place on a Karachi-esque day with plenty of drama. But no, his death did not take place under any such circumstances, for as unpredictable and erratic he was, he was taken to hospital with severe respiratory failure. Earlier in the day, he had participated in a balloon filling competition and blew nearly 39 balloons before he was rushed to the ER. Pronounced dead on arrival! He was only 39.
City Moment – A Colony of Birds, Lodhi Gardens Moments by The Delhi Walla - May 15, 2015May 15, 20155 The remarkable Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One warm sky-blue evening The Delhi Walla saw a tree in Lodhi Gardens that was colonised by hundreds of birds. The birds were silent. Their kingdom seemed in a state of peacetime stillness. Just then a solitary young man walked in from another direction. He happened to look up at the tree. It was indeed a fantastical sight. The branches were bare, but the birds had covered those branches like the season’s new leaves. The young man stood frozen. He stirred, after a while. He bent down and picked up something from the grass. He then stood up, looked up at the tree and, with great force, threw that something towards it. It
Atget’s Corner – 796-800, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - May 14, 2015May 14, 20152 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. Five randomly picked pictures from this collection are regularly 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 796 to 800. 796. Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah 797.