City Hangout – Sharma Tea Stall, Satyam Plaza, Gurgaon Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 14, 2018November 14, 20182 The perfect 'café'. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You’ll be surprised to know that many people prefer coffee shops with noisy customers and deafening music so that they don’t have to be obliged into holding a demanding conversation with friends. Our city is full of such cafés. Then there are some people who are always trying to find places where one can enjoy a sustained tête-à-tête with a friend, or even with one’s own self. Our city, alas, is woefully short of such cafés. But there’s a café with a quiet ambiance that is also heartwarmingly modest. It isn’t even strictly a café for it serves no coffee. But Sharma Tea Stall offers a kind of reflective space that links it to those
Mission Delhi – Yogesh Kumar, Connaught Place Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 13, 2018November 13, 20180 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] No question about it: Life changed drastically for Yogesh Kumar while crossing the road to buy a milk packet. He was struck straight on by a bus, all those years ago, and “my right arm had to be amputated.” Even so, Mr Kumar has been a “courier boy”--as they’re called--all his working life. A heavy bag hangs from his shoulder as he spends his long day making countless deliveries around Connaught Place. “In a sense, it’s the dream job,” says Mr Kumar, 42, who loves the city streets. “This kind of work has made me so very independent, even though it’s difficult sometimes.” He’s especially fond of ghumakkarri—which is quite
City Food – Nankhatai, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - November 12, 20180 A buttery treat. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Nankhatai is like Indian English – a foreign import slapped, beaten, fermented and baked by us Indians till it becomes total desi. An egg-less cookie, its origins are traced to 16th century Dutch colonisers. It was first made by the entrepreneurial Parsis in Surat bakeries in modern-day Gujarat, which were set up by the Dutch who quit India in 1825. Though those Dutch could never make it to Delhi, their legacy is left behind in these crumbly cookies sold along the city streets. A typical nankhatai bakery is carried on a humble cart. The hawker prepares the dough by mixing suji, maida, besan flour with khoya, sugar, desi ghee, cardamom powder, baking powder
City landmark – Gurgaon Club, Civil Lines, Gurgaon Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - November 9, 20180 The watering hole that was. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Iced beer and bridge tables, pukka sahibs and uniformed butlers. This is the mise-en-scène instantly evoked by the mere thought of colonial-era clubs that sprang up in every district headquarter of British India. Gurgaon Club in Gurgaon’s Civil Lines too is a souvenir of that long-gone civilization. It was “established since 1930”–according to a rusting notice board. Another similarly-gloomy board warns that “this property belongs to Zila Parishad, Gurgaon. Trespassers will be prosecuted.” The gate, however, is open. A cabin beside it is crammed with broken chairs. A rutty path tapers away to the club building--a small bungalow perched under a dense tree cover. The walls have gone mossy-green, perhaps a consequence
City Life – A Woman’s Life, GB Road Red Light Area Life by The Delhi Walla - November 5, 20180 Her life in her words. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] [As told to The Delhi Walla by a woman who wishes to remain anonymous] You will perhaps never invite me to visit your family. For I am one of the workers who live and work at GB Road, the city’s red-light area. I must say I used to work. Now I am old, in my late 40s, and have stopped working. I look after my teenaged children, and continue to stay in this kotha where I have lived for so many years. The kind kotha malik gives me spending money every month. Besides, I have my savings. I also find it difficult to leave GB Road because I have become used