City Neighbourhood – Empress Razia Sultan’s Locality, Bulbuli Khana Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - May 12, 2019May 12, 20190 Razia's area. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Such narrow streets. Such broken rutty paths. And this happens to be a queen’s address. Who was the only female ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. The way to Razia Sultan’s grave goes through a hodgepodge of Old Delhi alleys so narrow that you cannot even see the sun. That makes these lanes invitingly cool on scorching summer noons. To reach the tomb complex, hemmed in by homes and shops, you have to walk up the Pahari Bhojla hill and meander through the secluded neighbourhood of Bulbuli Khana—no chance of spotting a bulbul though. This is such a quiet locality that you feel far from the overexcited world of the Walled City. Keep walking until you reach a
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Dr Santosh Bakaya, Jaipur Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - May 12, 20190 The 237th death. [Text and photo sent by Dr Santosh Bakaya] Here lies the Mad Hatter! Finally. She kicked the bucket today. Ah, that reminds me, she could not tick off many items on her bucket list. Death came suddenly, when she was plotting her next book, that crook shook her out of her complacence pouncing at her, unexpectedly. The injustices of the world weighed so heavily on her, stirring her out of her snug cocoon, making her write and write. And she writhed on. But now she is gone, no longer writing, no longer writhing. That little diary, the one she used to keep next to her, to trap runaway words, fell to the ground. Maimed. Unclaimed. “You are always on a high,” friends and acquaintances would remark “I am drugged on life,” she would quip. Her relentless
Mission Delhi – Iffat zarrin, Galli Hakimwalli Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - May 10, 20190 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Poet Iffat Zarrin’s home in Old Delhi’s Galli Hakimwalli has a picturesque courtyard where she often spends time composing verses. An associate professor of Urdu literature in Mata Sundari College, the 61-year-old woman grew up in the Walled City. Her late father was a poet. “In the beginning, Papa asked me to stay away from poetry,” she says. “But he stopped after realising my passion for shayari.” Every evening, Ms Zarrin’s eminent father, Mushir Jhinjhanvi, would host a meeting of fellow poets in his drawing room in Chitli Qabar Chowk and she would be handed the task of serving tea. “I would hear people such as Khumar
City Season – The Summertime Amaltas Flowers, Sukhrali Village, Gurgaon Nature by The Delhi Walla - May 10, 2019May 10, 20190 The first sighting. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is one of the few nice things about the summer. And it has arrived. The Amaltas trees are starting to bloom. The golden yellow flowers have just begun to show up. These are still the early days but at least one roadside tree near Gurgaon’s Sukhrali village is dressed in Amaltas flowers from top to bottom. The sight is beautiful. This afternoon, the tree is outshining the fiery sun’s blinding light. Impossible to ignore, it is as densely clothed with flowers as a Pilkhan tree is with its fresh green leaves. The skin-searing breeze, however, is causing the flowers to fall down on the ground one after another. But their loss is going
City Walk – Raisina Hill Walk, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - May 9, 2019May 9, 20191 Into the heart of the governing elite. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The 2019 General Election results will be out later this month. By then we’ll have a clear idea of who would be ruling upon us for the next five years. In the meantime, one way of commemorating the sun setting on the current 16th Lok Sabha is by taking a sunset walk into the political heart of India’s ruling elite. Raisina Hill is a colonial-era edifice fashioned out of sandstone. In the early 20th century, a village of this name was relocated by the British to build Viceroy House, which was renamed Rashtrapati Bhavan upon becoming the official residence of the president. The best way to approach Raisina Hill
City Monument – The New Church of Epiphany, Civil Lines, Gurgaon Monuments by The Delhi Walla - May 8, 2019May 8, 20190 A contemporary monument. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] So simple and yet so elegant and contemporary. The Church of the Epiphany in Gurgaon’s Civil Lines truly resonates with the spirit of this so-called Millennium City in the National Capital Region. The vaulted ceiling of concrete soars upwards into a modernist arrangement of tilted planes and straight lines. The minimalist style is finely matched by the plain white of the walls. While the wooden pews offer a welcoming distraction with their red mats. This weekend afternoon, the church is empty. Daylight is streaming in like an endless row of pilgrims, entering the hall through its wide glass door and its tall windows, including a moon-shaped glass panel near the roof. The altar is presided
City Food – Rooh Afza Drink Stall, Old Delhi Food by The Delhi Walla - May 7, 20191 Summer's utmost pleasure. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Where else to have a tasty glass of scarlet-hued sherbet than in the bazaar lanes of Old Delhi? Make a point this summer to turn up at a modest establishment near Gali Dakotan street where Muhammed Fazil serves the Rooh Afza drink—said to contain no less than 22 ingredients. The props at his stall are few: just a table, stacks of plastic glasses, and a large metal vessel full of sherbet. “I prepare the drink in the morning,” says the man, too embarrassed to boast about his own self. Himself a wintertime bus conductor, he excuses himself in summer months to set up his temporary sherbet enterprise. His sherbet is topped with floating
Mission Delhi – Toy Train Driver Surjeet, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - May 6, 2019May 6, 20190 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world is full of possibilities and some folks are able to find jobs that one never imagined to have existed. Take Surjeet, for example. The young gentleman is a train driver. Nothing unusual. But he drives a toy train that doesn’t chug along in a zoo or an adventure park but in a Gurgaon shopping mall. “I spend the whole day driving the train here on the mall’s ground floor,” he says, as his four-coach show halts at the ticket counter—the service is operated by an adventure games company. The Ambience mall is huge and the 200 rupees joy-ride consists of two rounds that take about 10
City Walk – Kaka Nagar, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - May 6, 2019May 6, 20191 A neighbourhood stroll. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The serene and privileged world of government housing seems nigh unto dead in this sweltering mid-afternoon, here in Central Delhi. Finding a single fellow human walking about in the Kaka Nagar neighbourhood can be almost a vain search. This locality of apartment blocks — reportedly built on a graveyard— is home, sweet home for countless bureaucrats presumably still at work in their sarkarifiles filled offices. Solitude reigns in every block, built largely in the 1970s, that features virtually self-contained social eco-systems — complete with private balconies, clotheslines, endless dish antennas and black paani tankis. Some bits of the snaking pathways are like a paradise. Dense leafy trees are lined on both the
City Hangout – Ramzan Nights, Zakir Nagar Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - May 5, 2019May 5, 20190 Fasting, shopping, feasting. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Ramzan 2019 starts this week. This is a month in which the Muslims believe that the Quran was sent down from heaven. To purify their inner and outer selves, followers of this faith are obliged to abstain from negative thoughts, speech and actions. And also from food and water during the day. The fast, or roza as it is called, ends every evening after the Maghrib prayers when friends, families and even strangers sit together in homes and mosques to have iftari, the day’s first meal. It usually consists of dates, fruits, sharbats and rose water. More elaborate meals are taken later in the night; both at home and at restaurants and stalls. During