City Moment – The Middle Lane Midnight Dance, Khan Market Moments by The Delhi Walla - July 25, 20181 The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s about 11 in the night, too early to be so quiet in Khan Market. Perhaps because this is not a weekend. Bored doormen sitting inside darkened showrooms, which have been closed for the day, are watching videos on their mobile phones. Suddenly a song wafts from the Middle Lane. Somebody is singing the old Kishore Kumar song Raat kali ek khawab mein aayi from the 1971 hit Buddha Mil Gaya. The performance is melodic but obviously not of a professional crooner. It’s more like that of one of those bold cousins who are always the first ones to sing in family weddings. The guitar sounds, however, are more affecting, each strain hitting like
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Kanksshi Agarwal, Somewhere in Delhi Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - July 25, 2018July 25, 20180 The 203rd death. [Text and photos sent by Kanksshi Agarwal] Kanksshi Agarwal was a 25-year-2 month-a-few-rainy-days-old woman. Her sudden demise, tainted with sympathy and poise, looks more like a high-paid planned event. She believed in magic and seems like her wish has been granted. She died on the stage, while launching her first book, and reciting Faiz’s poetry, “Nahin nigah me manzil toh justaju hi sahi, nahi visaal mayyasar toh arzoo hi sahi”. In search of new philosophies, people, experiences and poetry, she was a conversationalist, mirroring whatever life met her with. A masochist, she has left behind a bookshelf, an elaborate collection of half-filled and inked diaries, a ring in her middle finger, uncountable number of ear-ring pairs, letter-stationaries, and some unposted
City Landmark – Piccadilly Book Stall, Shankar Market Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - July 24, 20180 The life of a bookshop. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was just another morning in March when bookshop owner Narendra Kumar Chowdhary woke up at his home in Vasant Kunj. Minutes later he died of a cardiac arrest. He was 65. It was the first time since its founding in 1950 that Piccadilly Book Stall in Central Delhi’s Shankar Market remained closed for a long, long time. The store’s longtime assistant, Chandrashekhar, too went away to his home in Nepal. Two months later in May, Mr Chowdhary’s wife Raina finally turned her thoughts towards the bookshop. Chandrashekhar too had returned by then. Together they re-launched the store, which has the capital’s best collection of spirituality, running the gamut from commentaries
City Life – Aunty’s Tree Stall, Golf Course Road, Gurgaon Life by The Delhi Walla - July 23, 2018July 23, 20181 Life under a dead tree. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Aunty has been working under this Kikar tree, here on Gurgaon’s Golf Links Road, for 15 years. Her real name is Salma Begum but barely anyone knows it. To the juice seller who operates next to her tea stall, to the local holy man who visits her daily, to the car puncture repairer down the road, and also to her regular customers, she is simply Aunty. “When I first came here, there were no buildings, nothing, and the tree was full of leaves,” she says. The Kikar was leafy until recently. “Two years ago, water supply people were digging the ground and they accidentally cut off its roots,” reveals Aunty,
Atget’s Corner – 1111-1115, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - July 23, 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 1111 to 1115. 1111. Mrs Bovary’s Electric Fan...
City Monument – Tughlakabad Fort, South Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - July 20, 20183 The grand desolation. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Red Fort is nothing to it. Seriously. This fort is grander. How to describe it? Think frozen music. The Tughlakabad Fort’s sloping rubble-filled outer walls are spread out on a hillock, like ripples of sound waves extending to infinity. The third city of Delhi (circa 1324) lies forsaken. Monkeys have taken over the ramparts. Thorny grass has laid siege to palace enclosures. Built in just two years by the Tughlak dynasty founder, Ghiyasuddin, the fort’s walls with its invincible fortifications of arrow slots and tiers of loop-holes, were designed to repel the Mongols who never came. Inside was a city with a palace and citadel for the king, and neighbourhoods and bazaars for his people.
City Hangout – The Sheetla Mata Temple Grounds, Old Gurgaon Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - July 19, 20181 The soothing secretive corner. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some places are like a laidback piece of music that initially leaves you indifferent but soon enough, even before you realize it, you are humming its tunes in the bathroom. The garden in Gurgaon’s Sheetla Mata Mandir has that character. It makes no desperate attempt to make a good first impression. Instead, the place wins you slowly. All you have to do is to arrive in the park alone, settle down on a bench, and wait patiently for it to take over your senses. This afternoon the muddy-brown ground is strewn with peepal leaves. Squirrels are running around fearlessly, while the trees are humming with the sounds of crows and squirrels. Pigeons, huddled
Mission Delhi – Omkar Gupta, Daryaganj Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 18, 20180 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Omkar Gupta’s secondhand bookstore opens seven days a week. But this month, the shop stayed shut for three continuous days. This was unusual. “Mummy passed away,” he murmurs, sitting behind the counter. Shakuntala Devi died of a stroke. She was 75. Mr Gupta returned just yesterday from Haridwar after immersing the mother’s ashes in the holy Ganga. “A special ghat is for this purpose near Har ki Pauri... many others were there too, immersing the ashes of their relatives.” Mr Gupta, 52, feels his mother’s fresh absence deeply “but one has to still run the business... Mummy also would have wanted it.” Gazing upon the mother’s photograph on his cell
City Hangout – Ranji Jhansi Park, Mehrauli Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - July 17, 2018July 17, 20180 A dreamworld of grass and ruins. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It isn’t every day new parks in Delhi make their debut. But this setup in South Delhi’s Mehrauli village frankly feels like a little Lodhi Garden next door. You’re within touching distance of ruined monuments if you aren’t just lolling about—an enticing enterprise here in pleasant Rani Jhansi Park. “I used to spend hours hanging around in the adjacent archaeology park,” explains teenager Vikas, who’s taking it very easy. “But now I just like being here!” he says, running his hands lazily over the wet grass. Vikas is of course referring to the Mehrauli Archaeology Park just across this garden, that’s crammed with monuments from Delhi’s long history. But somehow, the new
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Pallavi Barnwal, Connaught Place City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - July 16, 2018July 16, 20181 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A poet’s life isn’t easy. Pallavi Barnwal still has to shuttle daily to her day job. After all, one ought to pay the bills, and Ms Barnwal, a single mother in her 30s, also have to support her mom and son—they all live in Noida’s Sector 61. Even so, she takes out time to write poetry at night some of which she publshes on her Facebook account. Like many verse-writers, “my poems often deal with my personal situation... about the fragility of relationships”. Ms Barnwal is chatting this morning with The Delhi Walla in Connaught Place. On her way to work, she says that one of the lingering themes of her poetic