Mission Delhi – Ram Jeevan, Near Red Fort Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 3, 2019September 3, 20190 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Paan vendor Ram Jeevan is sitting on a pavement near the Red Fort patiently waiting for customers while recalling his long years in Delhi. “I arrived here at age 14 to help supplement family income in Benares,” he explains. “My father was a poor farmer and I couldn’t go on studying, so left for the big city with the family’s blessings.” He boarded the Farakka Express for the Capital, wearing a simple white dhoti and kurta. Nearly every day for 53 years—still dressed in dhoti and kurta—he walks along city lanes, his straw basket filled with paan leaves and the various nuts and pastes. “That’s my life, and nothing
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Hetvi Jethwani, IIT Delhi Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - September 3, 2019September 3, 20190 The 243rd death. [Text and photo sent by Hetvi Jethwani] The self-proclaimed "mad" scientist Hetvi died on her 42nd birthday doing what she loved, lying down in her comfortable hammock, reading. Sadly, death seized her before she could reach the end of her most recent read. Also known to some by her online alias, BrainySaber, Hetvi was a literature, wordplay, and science enthusiast since her childhood. Had she been alive, she'd have chided the author of this obituary for not saying 'mathematics and science' instead of just 'science'. While she didn't live to be as significant as she thought she would be, the research group led by Hetvi and her college sweetheart made significant contributions to the field of Quantum Computing. The
City Landmark – The Banyan Tree, Shiv Park, Jacobpura Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - September 3, 20190 A solitary wilderness. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is like spotting a long-haired hippie stranded amid a group of suited-booted hedge fund managers. The banyan is looking that out of place. The tree stands in the centre of a genteel neighbourhood park in Gurgaon’s Jacobpura in the Greater Delhi Region. Surrounded by cement benches, and spindly trees painted in the colours of the national flag, the feral banyan seems beyond the reach of domesticated middle-class restraint. Dozens of aerial roots are hanging flamboyantly about its branches—like snakes hissing about Medusa’s head. A shopkeeper in the area discloses that the tree is ancient by several centuries. There is no easy way of confirming the claim but, at least, the gnarled trunk looks as