Home Sweet Home – Asmuddin Ansari’s House-Cum-Graveyard, Mehrauli Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - December 31, 20200 An unusual dwelling. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He has one of the most unique addresses in the city. He lives in a graveyard. Alone. “This has been my home for 28 years,” mutters Asmuddin Ansari. In his mid-50s, he stays in a little cemetery tucked in one corner of the Sufi shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, in south Delhi’s Mehrauli. This winter afternoon, Mr Ansari is sitting in a sunlit corner of the graveyard, silently staring upon the graves—some of which are more than 100 years old and some are more recent. “The latest burial took place four months ago,” he says, explaining that it isn’t a public graveyard, and is reserved for members of select families. Dressed in
City Faith – Free Church, Green Park Faith by The Delhi Walla - December 30, 2020December 30, 20200 Souvenirs of Christmas. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Encountering a collection of decorations after the event they were meant to celebrate is over presents a poignant sight. Like, the morning after the wedding. Or the day/s after Christmas, here at the Free Church in south Delhi’s Green Park. The Christmas decorations in the prayer hall are looking fresh, untouched. The gaze first goes to the church’s many ceiling fans. These humble, everyday instruments have been turned into works of art. One fan has paper bells hanging from it. Another has red circular orbs. And then there’s a fan that seems to have a shiny tarantula clinging to it, as if they were two friends frozen into a tight embrace. The walls
Mission Delhi – Katto, Matia Mahal Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 27, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She likes guavas, which is pretty conventional for somebody like her. She is a parrot. “Her name is Katto, call her by her name,” says fruit-seller Zakir a bit sternly. His tone instantly softens as he starts talking to the parro... oops, as he starts talking to Katto. “How are you, my Katto? I love you so much. Do you know that?” But Katto’s claws are perched on a stack of oranges, and her gaze is constantly shifting towards the adjacent stack of tempting guavas. The young Zakir’s fruit cart is parked on a pavement in Old Delhi’s Matia Mahal Bazaar. His home is nearby. He acquired Katto just last week. “I got her for 300
Julia Child in Delhi – Jolly Sabherwal’s X-Mas Cake, Vasant Kunj Julia Child's Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 24, 20200 The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One way to salvage this cursed year (boo boo 2020!) from becoming a complete annus horribilis is to make Jolly Sabherwal’s super-yummy Christmas cake for Christmas Eve today. “I have already made it four-five times since last week for friends,” she says, beaming, on the WhatsApp video from her first-floor flat in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. At 70, the Kerala native is a familiar figure in the city for having been a longtime manager of a much-loved bookstore. She would be always sighted in one of her gorgeous saris (she has 100 saris!). This year, too, Ms Sabherwal is determined to dress in one of her “christmassy saris” for the midnight
City Monument – Poet Rahim’s Underground Crypt and the Restored Tomb, Hazrat Nizamuddin East Monuments by The Delhi Walla - December 23, 2020December 24, 20201 This lies beneath. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Nothing here but silence. And the two graves at the center. This is the windowless crypt of Rahim’s tomb, in central Delhi’s Nizamuddin East. What the visitors see up there in the breezy principal tomb chamber, directly under the gumbad (dome), are the empty gravestones, the cenotaphs. But here in the underground lie the original graves of Mughal-era poet and nobleman Rahim, and of Mah Banu, his wife, in whose memory the building was conceived. The 16th century mausoleum was undergoing years-long restoration, led by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (in partnership with the InterGlobe Foundation), that finished last week. Truth be told, the building has always been cloaked in melancholic
Mission Delhi – Sikander, Sadar Bazaar, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 22, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Alexander the Great — whose Hindi name would be Sikander — set on to conquer the world. But Sikander, the dholak seller, is more humble. He just want to conquer his fate. “I have come from a khandaan of dholak wallas... my father sold dholak, his father sold dholak, and his father sold dholak too. But I want to break this cycle... the dholak hasn’t made us rich... I want to do something else instead of walking along the streets, crying out for people to buy these dholaks.” It’s a cold afternoon and Sikander is wading through the Sadar Bazaar crowd in Gurgaon in the Greater Delhi Region. He has two dholaks hanging
Mission Delhi – Saddam, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 20, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s such a deathly cold evening that the mere sight of steaming hot gajar halwa (carrot pudding), here in this central Delhi market, brings instant relief. Only later does the attention shift to the boy manning the cart. His face is hidden behind a mask but his eyes—so huge—seem to speak for his entire being. In such a chilly hour, he ought to be snuggled inside a cushy quilt at home, with one of his parents perhaps serving him a bowl of this very same halwa. Saddam giggles. “My mummy is dead, my papa is ill,” he says matter-of-factly. Saddam says he is 18. He arrived in the Delhi region “many years ago” from his village in
City Food – Madhur Jaffrey’s First Book, Delhi’s Most Iconic Cookbook Food by The Delhi Walla - December 18, 20200 A culinary legend. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Attired in a Kanjeevaram silk sari, Madhur Jaffrey looks squarely at the potential buyer, her arms resting daintily on a chopping board. This was her first book’s cover, the year was 1973. An Invitation to Indian Cooking is Delhi’s most iconic cookbook. With 200 recipes, it introduced Delhi cuisine to the West. The New York Times called it “the best Indian cookbook available in English”. Every great city has books devoted to it but only a few help spread its fame across the world. No understanding of the Capital can be complete without leafing through this book, even if food writing isn’t your thing. Sadly, it’s rarely sighted in the city’s bookstores. “It’s a classic,”
City Life – Gardeners’ Dreams, Sector 15, Gurgaon Life by The Delhi Walla - December 18, 20200 Family of a couple. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was decided some years ago: Mangal and his wife, Reena, will continue with their jobs until the career of their children are shaped — at least. “That is our hope... we don’t want them to stick to our professions.” The couple are gardeners in a public park in Gurgaon’s Sector 15 in the Greater Delhi Region, and their home is a corner of the garden itself. It’s not that Mangal and Reena don’t like their job, “but we have to work under the sun, in the rain, in the heat, in the cold, amid all the dust.” The hope is that their kids—Srishti, Sanjay and Kapil—go on to study well, so that
City Landmark – Jagat Cinema, Old Delhi Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 18, 20200 A single-screen. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The grilles are shuttered, but the lobby can be seen through them: the ticket window, the board displaying the show timings and the ticket rates—32 rupees for Box. Some things become history, are forgotten and yet a little something remains. Like the Jagat Cinema in Old Delhi. Originally named Nishat, it used to be referred to as “Macchliwallon ka Talkies” because of its proximity to the fish market. Though it stopped screening films in 2004, the cinema building remains. The place lies mostly ignored, when it should be a draw for connoisseurs of single screens, especially those who like the grandeur of the old sprawling cinema houses, when these places were not just another outlet in