City Monument – Masjid Rukn ud Daula, Chawri Bazaar Monuments by The Delhi Walla - August 17, 2016August 17, 20163 A dream in the market. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Everything beautiful in this secretive city seems to be concealed ‘up a flight of steep dark stairs’. This Mughal-era mosque, too, is such a revelation. Lost in the clutter of Old Delhi’s Chawri Bazaar, it lies atop small shops selling aluminum and copper rods. Masjid Rukn ud Daula's outer walls are a thing of beauty. They are spectacularly covered with stone carvings of flowers and leaves that you can gaze upon for hours. The dimly-lit prayer hall, lined with a series of green doors, remains immersed in quietness. The priest’s pulpit is of white marble. The Mecca-facing wall is adorned with floral patterns. This is a perfect escape from the city—an ideal
Mission Delhi – Jaswant Rai Goyal, Regal Cinema Building, Connaught Place Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - August 15, 2016August 14, 20193 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He has been selling mutual fund forms and posters of gods and goddesses on the same spot in Connaught Place for more than 25 years. He is more than 80. This humid afternoon, too, Jaswant Rai Goyal, as always, is sitting at his stall outside the Regal Cinema building. Mr Goyal is dressed formally in a white half-sleeved shirt, black trousers and black shoes (with no socks). The posters are arranged neatly on the pavement while he is perched on a cement block. Shoppers are busily passing by him. Nobody is noticing the man. He is as still as a statue. An ‘Om’ is tattooed on the back of
City Food – Milk Cake, Kucha Ghasi Ram Food by The Delhi Walla - August 13, 2016December 28, 20170 Sweeten the senses. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some mysteries should never be solved. Why ask how the sticky, gooey milk cake is made? Why ruin the romance by disclosing that this luscious mithai, which looks like beehive and tastes of ambrosia, is made of nothing but milk and sugar? This pride of Delhi desserts is sold in almost every sweet shop, but the purity of the full-cream milk used to make it is said to determine the quality. To get the best milk cake in town, you have to step into Kucha Ghasi Ram, a narrow lane near Fatehpuri Masjid in Chandni Chowk. Facing a salon, the hole-in-the-wall Hemchand Ladli Prashad milk shop seems a conspiracy by milk cake lovers
City Obituary – Anil Arora of The Bookworm in Connaught Place is Dead General by The Delhi Walla - August 12, 2016August 12, 20161 Death of a bookseller. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Anil Arora, the owner of The Bookworm in Delhi’s Connaught Place, died on 9 August 2016. He was 74. The reason of his death is not known. Mr Arora’s deliciously cramped establishment was one of the three great bookstores of the Colonial-era district. The other two were New Book Depot and Galgotia & Sons. They all shut down due to lack of business. The Bookworm was the first to close in 2008. Mr Arora, whose parents had migrated from Lahore to Delhi as partition refugees, had originally inherited a liquor shop in D block, Connaught Place. He replaced it with a bookstore in 1977 that quickly went on to become an important cultural
Mapping National Museum – The God of Wealth, 2nd Century AD Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - August 11, 2016August 11, 20160 The one percenter. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The man without the shirt is dressed in an expression of great content on his face. He has an arresting moustache and a huge belly. He is Kuber, the Hindu god of wealth. One day, The Delhi Walla gazed upon this sculpture at the Kushana Collection in National Museum, India’s largest storehouse of heritage with over 200,000 exhibits spanning over 5,000 years. This piece of mottled red sandstone dates to 2nd century and was discovered at Ahichchhatra, an ancient city, now in ruins, in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Today some of us might dismiss the man’s huge belly as a consequence of irresponsible dietary habits but to be able to store
Netherfield Ball – Retired Chief Justice Leila Seth, The Empress of Delhi’s Book Launches City Parties by The Delhi Walla - August 9, 2016August 9, 20160 The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One person almost always seen at Delhi’s book launches is novelist Vikram Seth’s mother, Leila Seth. A retired High Court justice as well as a memoirist, this graceful woman is always given a front row seat. The author of the evening as well as the publishing house editors would make it a point to greet her. Any Vikram Seth fanatic can tell you that Ms Seth was the inspiration behind Lata Mehra, the spunky heroine of Vikram Seth’s celebrated novel A Suitable Boy. The Delhi Walla has been stalking Ms Seth for many years. I even photographed her the day author Khushwant Singh died—she was standing outside his residence with her novelist son, and
Mission Delhi – Mohammed Saleem, Dargah Sabri, Daryaganj Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - August 8, 2016August 11, 20167 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is looking very tired. One afternoon The Delhi Walla meets Mohammed Saleem at the small mosque in Dargah Sabir, a Sufi shrine in Daryaganj. Mr Saleem is among a dozen men present at this hour. Sitting down in front of me, he offers a brief but astonishing account of his extraordinary life. This is strange because he is narrating his story to me, a stranger, without any prompting. "I have just been released after spending seven years, one month and five days in prison. I'm from Gujarat. I was living with my wife and three children in Bhuj. My youngest is a daughter; she was only three
100 Things To Do Before You Quit Delhi – Hang Out Amid Chirag Dilli’s Anonymous Tombs, Near Greater Kailash Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - August 6, 2016August 6, 20164 The perfect Delhi experience. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Green grass is growing over one grave. A black cat is sitting on another. And the grey monsoon sky has fallen into another one—actually fresh rainwater has collected over this grave. As part of The Delhi Walla’s series ‘100 Things to Do Before You Quit Delhi’, I urge you to spend a few hours around the many, many anonymous graves at Chirag Dilli Sufi shrine in South Delhi. Its sprawling courtyard contains the spirit of Delhi, which is a city of tombs--Humayun’s tomb, Safdarjung’s tomb, Feroze Shah’s tomb, Sikender Lodhi’s tomb, and all the numerous shrines devoted to the graves of Sufi mystics. This shrine has Hazrat Naseeruddin Mahmud Roshan Chirag Dilli’s
City Notice – A Godin & Co., The Piano Shop of Connaught Place, is Gone! General by The Delhi Walla - August 5, 2016August 5, 20162 Lost to past. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A great Colonial-era icon of Connaught Place is lost to history. One late night, The Delhi Walla discovered that A Godin & Co., the capital’s legendary piano shop, is gone. A Dr Lal PathLabs, a blood test laboratory chain, is coming up in its place. (I took the shop picture seen at the top in 2007) The piano shop used to be the official tuner for the pianos of Lord Louis Mountbatten, India’s last British Viceroy. Situated at the desolate end of the Regal Cinema building, A. Godin & Co. was established in Quetta in 1900. The founder Celiano Godin, a 25-year-old who played both piano and violin, later opened branches in Bombay, Calcutta,
City Landmark – The Ashok Hotel, Central Delhi Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - August 4, 20160 The power and the glory. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is exactly what a sprightly 60-year-old should be—a blend of gravitas and energy. The Ashok hotel in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri area, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in October 2016, is still the crown jewel of the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). That same month, the ITDC will celebrate its golden jubilee. Talk of disinvestment peppers the conversation around the Ashok in its landmark year. However, it may not be easy to dispose of. Right now, as we stand there trying to absorb the spirit of India’s first state-owned five-star hotel, the Ashok is unperturbed, its stateliness still recalling the time when prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru rode on horseback around its premises, paying