City Food – Kalonji Miracles, Old Delhi Food by The Delhi Walla - October 31, 20190 Tales of nigella seeds. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some written works just must be cherished because they’re flavoured with the nuances of everyday life, and dyed with the hyperlocal shades of a particular place. Such as Kalonji ke Chamtkar or “the wonders of nigella seeds” which claims cures for all manner of illnesses. From asthma to fits, from baldness to pimples. This slim paperback published by an Old Delhi bookstore in fact claims that nigella seeds can cure just about everything except, of course, death (the book runs the disclaimer on the opening page). No way is this piece suggesting you to follow up the book’s recommendations. Instead you might well simply flip through the pages to enjoy a kind of easy
City Moment – Bicycle Couple, Central Delhi Moments by The Delhi Walla - October 30, 20190 The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It takes them the better part of one hour to arrive home by bicycle after their long day as public park gardeners. Malti Devi sits on the back carrier while her husband Naresh Kumar does the peddling. But, an obvious question. Isn’t this exhausting for a man in his late 40s? Mr Kumar shrugs. “It’s been our routine for 10 years, and I’m used to it.” This may well attest to his fit figure. The longtime couple arrived in New Delhi a decade ago after working as field hands for rich farmers in their village in Jalaun, UP. “We wanted to improve our situation and raise our three children in a land of opportunities,”
City Hangout – Strangest Bench, Central Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - October 29, 2019October 29, 20190 Away from the world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This may be the weirdest garden bench in all of Delhi. Instead of facing the finery of flowers it faces a wall here in central Delhi’s Bhishma Pitamah Marg. The only saving grace is a frangipani tree lording over it. Could this be an architect’s gaffe? Or perhaps a mistake by the workers when laying out the benches here? You’ll probably never know. But actually sitting on this particular bench offers a strange sort of swagger. As though you’re making a statement to the world by turning your back on it. All you spot is the gray wall itself—beyond which lies the upper-crust Golf Links Colony. Also hidden from this perch is the bronze statue
City Life – Wooden ‘Takhat’ Bed, Outside Jama Masjid, Gurgaon Life by The Delhi Walla - October 28, 20190 Our common bed. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is a single wooden bed, but quite broad. It is without a mattress or a bedsheet. No pillow, either. And this bed is for everyone. The cot—known as takhat—lies on the footsteps of Jama Masjid in Gurgaon’s Sadar Bazaar in the Greater Delhi Region. “This is a place for the public to rest for a while,” explains Mehmood Khan, one of the members of the so-called public sitting on the takhat on this cool breezy afternoon. A house painter, Mr Khan, dressed in white kurta pajama, patiently articulates the importance of takhat to the area’s hyperlocal society. “These days everything is tera (yours) or mera (mine)... this is my car, this is your mobile...
City Monument – Holy Trinity Church, Turkman Gate Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 26, 20191 A secluded sacredness. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A handful of Christian families live in a pleasing coziness in the courtyard of old Holy Trinity Church at the southern border of the Walled City. Here’s a hushed world of Urdu and Hindi Bibles in this many-domed house of worship built in 1904 in memory of the London-born son of a reverend. Alexander Maitland left the bulk of his property (about 10,000 rupees) to the building of the church in “a distant quarter of the city”—after devoting his short life (41 years) to the Christian mission in Delhi. The households now established in the church’s compound live in a secluded Macando of their own. The calm compound is in Old Delhi but zillions
Mission Delhi – Khemchand Pakoriwalle, Connaught Place Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 24, 2019October 24, 20193 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He has a name that makes him seem one of those men justly famous for selling fabulous pakoras. But he stopped selling them some 40 years ago when he was still a boy. “I used to make pakoras of all types, I had many customers,” recalls the man who calls himself Khemchand Pakoriwalle. But then came the national emergency—1975-77—and he was obliged to shut down his E block stall in Central Delhi's Connaught Place for many number of reasons too complicated to explain here. “Gobhi and palak pakoras sold the most,” says Khemchand, 55, who now works as an assistant at a kiosk in the same block selling uneatables like socks
City Food – Shamir Hasan’s Chai Stall, Gali Sayyed Street, Old Delhi Food by The Delhi Walla - October 24, 2019August 29, 20220 The gentleman's establishment. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] No contrary argument can be made about it. Tea stall owner Shamir Hasan stands out as a man of style. With his freshly ironed shirt carefully tucked into immaculate pants, he says the outfit is his passion. Such a sartorial taste is definitely not shared by most men here in Old Delhi’s Bulbuli Khana neighbourhood who content themselves either with tight denim jeans and T-shirts or the more traditional white kurta pajama, or even in the casual lungi and banian. Then there’s something else. Mr Hasan always wears a leather belt to emphasize a slender waistline. Again, this is a strange sight in a district where most citizens tend to put on weight because of
City Landmark – Goldsmith’s Workshop, Nai Basti, Gurgaon Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 20190 Inside an old-fashioned world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In the so-called Millennium City, yet so far. This old-fashioned goldsmith’s workshop in Gurgaon's Nai Basti in the Greater Delhi region. You get custom-made lockets, rings, and necklace pendants from Dharmender Kumar Soni, the goldsmith, or the sunar. The middle-aged Mr Soni is an excessively polite man, the kind of genteel traders encountered in the long-time family-run shops in colonial-era hill stations, who vividly remember the families of their customers and are capable of chatting with them for hours. Explaining his work, the sunar explains that “when you want to build a house, you first get its map made by an architect... well, I’m that architect for lockets and rings, and I’m also
Home Sweet Home – Kabeer Jhinjhianvi’s Bedroom Window, Old Delhi Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 2019August 29, 20220 Lovely but unloved. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This window in theory should be listed in guidebooks, looking directly down on Chitli Qabar chowk—one of those rare squares in Old Delhi. But your chances of a glimpse are next to null unless you happen to know physiotherapy student Kabeer Jhinjhianvi. This amazing view is captured from his bedroom window. Irony of ironies--he himself has seen the sight so many times he’s become more or less inured. “It’s just a window,” he mutters, shaking his head amusedly. The boy’s window offers a panoramic view of the square: biryani sellers perched beside their giant brass cauldrons…customers outside Diamond Bakery that makes Delhi’s best rusks…the balloon and bangle sellers, and of course all those pedestrians
City Food – Dal Makhani, Cosy Restaurant Food by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 20190 A lentil excursion. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You must agree: the universally loved dal makhani is as critical for the survival of Delhi’s food and beverage service industry as India’s middle class is for its automobile economy. And it’s so sturdy. The dal’s creamy texture makes it as robust as any wrestler in Punjab. One of the better places to experience it in the Capital is at the moderately antique Cosy restaurant (since 1962) in south Delhi’s Aurobindo Marg. This small, unpretentious place makes up the nostalgia of many well-known artists and writers of today who were struggling to be somebody in the city during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. In this dimly-lit eatery, the dal is accompanied with mint chutney,