City Monument – Chhoti Gumti, Green Park Monuments by The Delhi Walla - March 21, 2016March 21, 20161 Small wonder. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is a beautiful nothing. Chhoti Gumti in South Delhi’s Green Park Colony is of no historic consequence. It is such a tiny Lodhi-era ruin that its survival is a marvel. Perhaps it was an insignificant portion of a much larger structure but nobody can tell. There is no exact historical record of it in any book of monuments. All the stories that Chhoti Gumti has lost to time, however, has not made it any poorer. It pulsates with modern life. The ruin lies snuggled inside a barricaded garden. People walk past it on their way to the Bobo district of Hauz Khas Village. The bourgeoisie houses of Green Park stand on the
City Nature – The Two Bougainvillea Trees, Lodhi Gardens Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 20, 2016March 20, 20164 The true city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The truth is that the actual city consists of only two bougainvillea trees—the rest of Delhi is an illusion. The two trees stand in Lodhi Gardens. One March afternoon The Delhi Walla went there to experience the spring rhythms of true urban life. The grassy ground was covered with pink bougainvillea flowers. They were falling from the branches of the trees like a continuous monsoon downpour. A clay pot filled with water, too, was covered with the pink flowers. Under one of the trees, a young man was seated on a green bench. A young woman was behind him, seated on the trunk of the bougainvillea. A pink handbag was kept beside
City Moment – The Solitary Man’s Private Prayer, Hazrat Nizamuddin’s Sufi Shrine Moments by The Delhi Walla - March 19, 2016March 19, 20162 The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His palms were folded together; his lips occasionally trembled. The young man stood at one side of the courtyard. It seemed he was praying. The Delhi Walla saw him one evening at the tomb of Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The courtyard was full of pilgrims seated in intimate clusters of families and friends. But this man was alone. He held his belongings tightly between his legs as if he feared somebody would snatch them from him. A few minutes later a loudspeaker installed in the shrine’s Jamat Khana mosque came to life with a great crackling sound; a priest’s melodious sound summoned the faithful for the evening prayer. But it made no
City Library – Riccardo Calimani’s Books, Venice Library by The Delhi Walla - March 17, 2016March 20, 20160 A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The weekend edition of The International New York Times is lying in one corner. It has a story on the ancient Jewish district of Venice. The full-page feature, timed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the world’s first ghetto, shows a portrait of Riccardo Calimani, a historian of Jewish life. In the newspaper, this stately looking man—himself a Jew—is seen seated in his study. It is the most picturesque room of his house, a palace that overlooks the Grand Canal. One morning The Delhi Walla enters this same study at Palazzo Fontana. Mr Calimani is surrounded by thousands of books, dozens of family photographs, and some soft toys. There is also a
Photo Essay – La Hune Bookstore’s Second Life, Paris Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - March 16, 2016March 16, 20160 A great landmark's afterlife. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once upon a time one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world was in the most beautiful part of beautiful Paris. La Hune, next to the historic Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, closed down on 14 June, 2015, due to depleting business. The Delhi Walla was there around that time to capture its last days. (I wrote about it here.) Almost a year later I again stepped inside what used to be La Hune. It now belongs to YellowKorner gallery and is a house of photographs in its new avatar as a bookstore-gallery. The coffee-table books are on the ground floor and limited editions of art images are on the first floor. The new occupants are
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Recollections, Venice’s Ancient Jewish Cemetery City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - March 15, 2016March 15, 20160 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The tombs lay scattered across the grassy ground. Many of them were inscribed in Hebrew. A few showed the shield of David. A very few had small stones placed on their headstones, a common cemetery custom in Judaism. The Delhi Walla arranged to meet American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow one morning in the ancient Jewish graveyard of Venice. It is older than the city’s ancient Jewish district, which, as the world’s first ghetto, is observing its 500th anniversary this year. Most tombs in the cemetery were covered with either moss or fallen leaves. A lot of them lay broken, reduced to mere fragments, but they had expanded to become a true work of
Netherfield Ball – ‘Somewhere in Delhi’ Palace Bash, Venice City Parties by The Delhi Walla - March 14, 2016March 15, 20164 The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was a delightful gathering of beautiful people in a beautiful palace in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. One afternoon in Venice The Delhi Walla attended Somewhere in Delhi: 17 Prints on Hand-Woven Khadi Muslin, an exhibition by Venetian designer Anna Gerotto and Delhi-based blogger Mayank Austen Soofi (me!). A selection of Mr Soofi’s photographs that he had originally put up on his Facebook account were transposed by Ms Gerotto into the fragile texture of hand-woven muslin. The soft fabrics hang down languidly from the high ceilings of Palazzo Michiel del Brusà, a Renaissance-era palace that stands beside Grand Canal and is within an eye-view of the great Rialto bridge. It
Letter From Jor Bagh – Bahrisons Bookseller’s Aanchal Malhotra on The Bookshop’s Nini KD Singh General by The Delhi Walla - March 13, 2016March 13, 20163 Bookshop woman to a bookshop woman. [Text and photos by Aanchal Malhotra] Note about the author: Aanchal Malhotra is an artist and writer living in New Delhi. She can be found at her photoblog, The Hiatus Project, which chronicles her love affair with Delhi, its history and magic. She belongs to the family that runs the legendary Bahrisons Booksellers in Delhi's Khan Market. This evening I did something I almost never do - ventured into a bookshop other than Bahrisons, my family’s bookstore. Due to a piece I am working on, I had planned to spend part of the evening with The Bookshop’s Nini Singh. She possesses the most beautiful aura. She is effortlessly graceful, and her strength and resilience reminds me of
City Moment – The Empty Table’s Memories, Rue du Buisson Saint-Louis Moments by The Delhi Walla - March 12, 2016March 12, 20160 The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His dining table can accommodate at least six and yet he is seated alone at the head of the table. There are five more people in the house but they are currently out. One afternoon The Delhi Walla meets Phillipe Mollon-Deschamps at his home on rue du Buisson Saint-Louis in Paris. A graphic designer in his sixties, Mr Mollon-Deschamps’s residence was part of a public washhouse during the nineteenth century. He has been living here since 1983. The wooden table was bought in a furniture showroom a decade ago. Its chairs came a year later, and they have a story. Mr Mollon-Deschamps was once developing a friend’s website for free. The friend was
City Landmark – Librairie Galignani, Rue de Rivoli Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - March 11, 2016March 11, 20161 Better than Shakespeare & Company. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] No, not Shakespeare & Company. The best bookstore in Paris for readers in English is actually Librairie Galignani. Founded in 1801, it is the oldest English-language bookstore in Europe outside England. To be sure, Shakespeare & Company is a very good bookstore. Situated just across the road from the great Notre Dame, it has chandeliers, beds, sofas, tourists and a great selection of first-hand books (the marvelous-looking used books upstairs are not for sale). But Galignani, which is situated close to the Louvre museum—on Rue de Rivoli— has a more extensive selection. And unlike Shakespeare & Company, it hasn’t got a single trash. Every single book in the dark-wood shelves