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