[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

His eyes were underlined strongly with black kaajal. His get-up included a white skullcap, and a necklace of green plastic beads. He had one leg; one of his two crutches was luxuriously decorated with a real peacock feather. It also had a purple plastic flower, with green plastic leaves. There was some purple on his white shore, too.  There was no one dressed like him.

The Delhi Walla saw this stylish man one morning in the Walled City’s Urdu Bazaar. He was standing still, quietly watching the pedestrians on the road. There was a huge red bag on his back. The man’s wiry, black beard was neatly trimmed. A scarf was wrapped around his shoulders.  And his two metal supports were most extraordinary. One crutch was almost bare and looked grey. The other was pink–it was decked with a plastic cord of that colour.

The inference was clear–the man exploited these two necessary elements of his daily gear to playfully challenge the established notions of symmetrical harmony. Now, that’s style.

The man of eyes and colours

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