City Life – Labourers’ Load, Central Delhi Life by The Delhi Walla - January 31, 20180 Big city dreams. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s another cold morning in a city bazar, where a thousand bricks stacked in a by-lane somehow need to be hauled to a construction site nearby. A crew of young labourers stand by as one of them builds a “twin tower” out of 24 red bricks. He then ties them with a frail jute rope and lifts the load onto his back. The sight is astonishing. His back is curved into a C-shape as he hobbles to the site where a new building is under construction. Now another guy builds a similar tower and staggers off, prompting the obvious question: “Doesn’t it hurt?” “No, we’re used to it,” says a worker, looking bemused. “We do this
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Shivani Singh, Bombay Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - January 31, 2018January 31, 20180 The 172nd death. [Text and photos sent by Shivani Singh] Shivani Singh, 24, was discovered dead in her office cafeteria here in Bombay. She was found sprawled halfway across the lunch table with a slow fan whirring overhead. They say, she overdosed. Overdosed on conversations, overdosed on all the notifications. She was a lover of paperbacks and preferred listening over talking. They say she recently got addicted to the little shiny device with a half-eaten apple at the back, was even spotted smiling at it. No one could pry away the phone from her hand, not even in death. Ms Singh had a journalism degree from Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College for Women but was in Corporate HR--it was stifling, she quipped
City Monument – Zeenat ul Masaajid, Near Ansari Road Monuments by The Delhi Walla - January 31, 20180 A Jama Masjid miniature. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Who shrunk the Jama Masjid? That’s the first thought on spotting this monument from the car window while driving down Ring Road. Zeenat ul Masjid greatly resembles that grand Old Delhi mosque though it is much, much smaller. This is one of the lesser-known historical mosques of Shahjahanabad. A short flight of steps leads to the courtyard, which faces the playground of Crescent School — in the morning when the rest of the quarter is not fully awake, you can clearly listen, with much pleasure, to the non-stop flow of classroom sounds. The ablution pool at the centre of the courtyard is dry and partially covered with grass. The sighting of tourists is rare. Commissioned
City Hangouts – The Pied Piper of Sector 18 Market, Noida Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - January 30, 20180 One man's music. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Sector 18 Market in Noida lives up to its uninspiring name with a motley mêlée of almost everything, from fast food joints to stressed shoppers. The Delhi Walla was told that the one man who has lived through it all is an entrepreneurial flute merchant. He not only sells the bamboo instruments but also regales this market in Noida with his impromptu flute concerts! I set about tracking him down. Finding Muhammed Ramzan isn’t at all easy, though, because he constantly moves around. At length, I detect the sibilant sounds of his flute over the din of car horns. There he is, playing an old Hindi film song. Mr Ramzan tells me that he buys the
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Arpan Chatterjee, Subroto Park, Delhi Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - January 30, 2018January 30, 20180 The 171st death. [Text and photos sent by Arpan Chatterjee] They found Arpan Chatterjee in his room hanging from the ceiling fan, all stiff. They also discovered a pile of ashes in the patio containing pieces of him throughout his time on this planet: pictures, clothes, pages from his erratic journal and probably a few dozen more self-obituaries written throughout the course of his life before this one pulled through. "If I go, I'm gone" he used to say, to himself more than anyone else. He didn't believe that this particular world is sinned. He didn't believe in a better place. But he did believe that no one needed to remember someone as dissenting and as insignificant as him. So he took all
City Food – Chandelier Tea, United Coffee House Food by The Delhi Walla - January 29, 2018January 29, 20180 Reflected taste. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There’s something about chandeliers. They evoke a kind of nostalgia for past grandeur even if that grandeur never existed. It is to soak in such a feeling that The Delhi Walla frequents the venerable United Coffee House. One of the few surviving remains of the Colonial-era Connaught Place, it opened in 1942. Despite a recent renovation, it is sublimely pickled in the aroma of yesteryears. One cook, for instance, has been working in the kitchen for more than 50 years. I personally know a circle of friends who, since last 40 years, meet up here almost every morning for tea and sandwiches. And now I'm becoming a regular because of our fascination for the cafe’s two
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ankita Surabhi’s Heartbreak Poetry, Lajpat Nagar City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - January 28, 20180 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It's morning and Ankita Surabhi is nonchalantly looking at the monkey sitting just outside her balcony window. He, too, is intently staring back at her. Soon she must get ready for the day—she’s a lawyer. But The Delhi Walla isn’t at her Lajpat Nagar apartment to talk law. Ms Surabhi is also a poet, you see, and publishes her poem on instagram handle ‘writerblocked’. Slouching on her rocking chair, Ms Surabhi, who grew up in girls' hostels in Ranchi and Patna, talks of a difficult chapter in her life. It made her realize the most important thing in the wide world “is what goes on inside one’s own mind!” The troubled phase is still
City Hangout – Janpath Flea Market at Midnight, Central Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - January 26, 2018January 26, 20180 The familiar world in unfamiliar light. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Far more frequently visited by us Delhiwallas than Delhi’s many monuments is a monument of another kind altogether. Of course The Delhi Walla is talking about the famously noisy and very cramped Janpath flea market. Where huge crowds of eager shoppers try ferreting out the very best bargains for, well, just about anything. But, what happens after this Central Delhi market closes at night? If you turn up at, say, 12 am, like me right now, you’ll discover a new and very unexpected bargain that isn’t for sale. The market is in fact home to so many trees that it’s almost like a lush forest. Needless to say, this secret fact can
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Anisha Saxena, Faridabad Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - January 26, 20180 The 170th death. [Text and photos sent by Anisha Saxena] Like the sun, she shines bright. Anisha Saxena has passed way smiling. For all the few who knew her, she was smiling even in her last days. She was serene and aware as her end was near. She lived a remarkable life. It was not as the world would know it. She had her own journeys. She had her own plans. She had her own achievements. She would be happy even with the smallest things, a believer of love. She used to travel the world and sing merry songs. She had a child hearts and a brave soul. Today we gather to remember a woman who never forgot to celebrate life even when the
Atget’s Corner – 1081-1085, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - January 25, 20180 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 1,00,000 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 1081 to 1085. 1081. Unless the God Looks