Photo Essay – The Delhi Walla’s Exhibition, Serendipity Arts Festival 2018, Goa Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - January 31, 2019January 31, 20191 My life as an artist. [Photos by Visual Pan] Dear reader, one of the most amazingly beautiful things that happened in my life as a blogger/writer/photographer was the exhibition of a sample of my instagram posts in the prestigious Serendipity Arts Festival held in Goa in December, 2019. My show--part of a project called My Colour on Your Plate--was curated by artist Subodh Gupta. These are pictures of the exhibition sent to me by the folks at Serendipity Arts Festival, 2018. 1. 2. 3. 4. 4a. 4b. 5. 6. 6a. 7. 8. 8a. 9. 9a. 10. 10a. 11. 12. 12a. 12b. 13.
Mission Delhi – Ramesh Kumar, KG Marg General by The Delhi Walla - January 29, 2019January 29, 20190 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Guru Ravidas’s portrait on the pavement wall is decked with two yellow plastic flowers. Ramesh Kumar, a 51-year-old cobbler, had purchased the poster from Daryaganj. He mutters, “Guru-ji is my saint.” The soft-spoken gentleman lives in Seelampur, north Delhi, and commutes to his pavement stall on KG Marg in the Metro. “I charge 10 rupees for shining shoes. Sometimes, good people give me double that amount,” he says. There’s a lull in the stall, and Mr Kumar takes advantage of the moment by sharing a story about Guru Ravidas: “One day, hundreds of years ago, a pandit-ji passed by Guru-ji’s hut on his way towards Ganga-ji. Guru-ji was working
City Hangout – Closing Hour Melancholy, Sunday Book Bazaar, Daryaganj Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - January 28, 2019January 28, 20190 Twilight in Delhi. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is a cold Sunday evening and the pavement book bazaar in Daryaganj is wrapping up. Being a weekly market, it will hopefully re-open next Sunday. Most people come to the book bazaar in the morning to fish for the best catches. You ought to arrive in the evening, and not just for the utilitarian reason of getting the best bargains. Be here to experience the market’s true poetic essence. This is the hour when the bazaar is washed in gentle melancholy. The desirable titles are sold, and the sellers are packing the remains of the day into gunny sacks and cartons. The scene stirs a similar kind of sentiment as evoked by
City Obituary – Tea Man Muhammed Sabir, Kasturba Gandhi Marg General by The Delhi Walla - January 26, 2019January 26, 20190 The end of a living landmark. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] In many ways this is just like any other January morning. Cold and sunny. But Muhammed Sabir’s tea stall in a side-lane on Central Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg is looking bereft with just a couple of piled-up concrete blocks. There is no tea rattling along in his kettle. The usual crowd of his regular customers—many of whom work in the offices of the adjacent HT House—is also missing. Mr Sabir died last night--1 am, 25 January--of a heart attack. He was 42. He had founded the tea stall more than 20 years ago, according to some of his fellow stall owners operating in the same area. Every morning the genial tea
City Food – Mathura ka Peda, Kucha Pati Ram Food by The Delhi Walla - January 25, 2019January 25, 20190 The charm of an out-of-town delicacy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some of the most universally loved Indian delicacies are identified with towns and cities where they were probably invented or given a special treatment — Agra ka Petha, Hyderabadi Biryani, Orai ka Rasgulla, Bombay ki Bhelpuri, Mysore Masala Dosa, Amritsari Machhi, Sandeela ka Laddu, and Khurja ki Khurchan. Delhi is a centre of great gastronomic pretensions but shamefully it has no dish named after it. Here’s a consolation. The Manohar Lal Doodh Waale sweet shop in Kucha Pati Ram, near Ajmeri Gate, offers the city’s best Mathura ka Peda. More than 100 km from Delhi, Mathura is the land of Krishna, the playful god fond of milk, makhan and mithais. The town is
Mission Delhi – Kashi Ram Sharma, Khan Market Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 23, 2019January 23, 20190 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is 9 pm at the teeming Khan Market and the fashionable crowds are still in abundance, heading for chic restaurants or maybe somewhere else. Very few are likely to spot this elderly gentleman selling cloth handkerchiefs. Carefully wrapped in transparent plastic, they’re priced at only 30 rupees apiece. But that depends on whether Kashi Ram Sharma can find a customer at all. Not everybody at the super-luxurious Khan Market is out seeking a handkerchief at this late hour near Front Lane. “I do need some money to carry on,” explains Mr Sharma, who says he lives alone in a modest dwelling nearby. “My wife is gone and the daughters
City Food – The Super-Romantic Tea Kettle, Om Shanti Chai Stall, Gurgaon General by The Delhi Walla - January 22, 2019January 22, 20191 A chai monument. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Tea kettles are objects of beauty, especially when they become chipped and worn-out after years of daily use. Then they look as romantic as the tattered copy of a much-annotated poetry anthology passed down the generations like a family heirloom. One of the most beautiful of such kettles belongs to tea stall owner Om Prakash. “It’s 30 years old,” says the soft spoken man who is a decade older than his kettle. Mr Prakash has a charming temperament and has a tendency to talk in English to his regular customers even if they might not understand the language, such as construction labourer Anand who has just stepped inside Om Shanti tea stall here
City Monument – Barah Khamba, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti Monuments by The Delhi Walla - January 21, 2019January 21, 20190 Too moon-soaked to be substantial. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] As soon as the sun sets, the Lodhi-era Barah Khamba, tucked within an unlit park, starts marinating in darkness; its 16th century stone walls and dome gradually become less visible. Finally it can no longer be seen. The same monument, however, acquires a transcendental glow under a full moon sky. The lunar light gathers about the building and softens its solidity to a barely perceptible shape. At this moment, the centuries-old landmark seems so fragile that you fear that its stones might dissolve any moment. In the morning, however, Barah Khamba loses its ethereal prospects but still retains its grace. By noon it becomes a shelter to a host of slumbering citizens; providing
Mission Delhi – Neeraj Kumar, Moti Bagh Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 20, 2019January 20, 20190 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There’s nothing unusual about chatting with Neeraj Kumar before you notice something amiss. His flip-flops don’t match. One of them is blue, and the other is red. As a middle-aged pavement dweller in Central Delhi's Moti Bagh, Mr Kumar had been reluctant to explain why he’s homeless—who wants to give away his tell-all for no reason or rhyme. But he’s more than ready to discuss the non-matching footwear. Not long ago he woke up early one morning to set out for a free breakfast at the langar in a nearby gurdwara when he noticed his flip-flops had gone missing. “Somebody had stolen them, or perhaps a street dog carted them
City Life – Two Dogs in Love, Pahari Imli Life by The Delhi Walla - January 18, 2019January 18, 20190 The story of a couple. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Calling these two dogs “strays” is almost a mistake. Because they never stray far from each other. They hang out together and even sleep with each other, their bodies touching. “They’re like husband and wife, they never leave each other,” smiles Vinod, a beggar who inhabits the same little bazaar lane in Old Delhi. To be sure: the canine couple never has privacy. This lane near Pahari Imli teems with dogs and cats, who somehow co-exist without showing hostility towards each other. The popularity of the street is without question enhanced by all the butcher shops that generously parcel out bits of meat to the animals. Vinod, who lived on the lane for