City Monument – Corona-Era Jama Masjid, Old Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - July 31, 20200 The edifice these days. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The gigantic courtyard is empty. So empty that even the customary pigeons are not there — remember how they would always be seen flying from the courtyard to the central dome, and back? The iconic Jama Masjid monument in Old Delhi is feeling absolutely surreal these days. Like most monuments, and most places of worship, it was closed for months due to the coronavirus. The pandemic is still raging on but the Mughal-era mosque has re-opened. On this late morning, it is so quiet here that you could hear your own breathing. Tomorrow’s historians might look back upon these times as a defining moment that altered the course of the world. But the
Mission Delhi – Veena Mathur, Sector 51 Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 31, 20200 Homecoming dress. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Wow, she speaks such free-flowing Hindi! Now, this might sound like an awkward compliment in the Hindi-speaking Delhi region. But then Hindi is not Veena’s first language. “Main Tamil Nadu ki hoon,” she says, giving away her origins in Hindi. This afternoon Veena is chatting on WhatsApp video from the isolation of her ground-floor home in Gurgaon’s Sector 51 in the Greater Delhi Region, which she shares with her husband and their two daughters. During the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, Veena, 39, launched a multi-lingual YouTube channel called Gurugram Sisters, which basically consists of the dance and song performances etc. of two young sisters. “They are my daughters, Shivli and Aditri,” reveals Veena, effortlessly switching into an
City Obituary – Shabrati Nihari, Shop, Haveli Azam Khan Food Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - July 31, 20200 Death of a landmark. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Bloggers have blogged about it. Instagrammers have instagrammed about it. Heritage-minded walking tours too would stop by for quick feasts and photo opportunities. And now it is gone. Hazi Shabrati Nihari Shop is history. The iconic eatery near Old Delhi’s Haveli Azam Khan was famous for its signature meat stew — it would be cooked overnight and served fresh in the early morning. It has been replaced by a grocery that opened last Friday. The shop stays within the family, but the business has changed. It all happened because of.... you guess it—coronavirus pandemic! “We remained shut during the long lockdown,” says Mohammad Shuaib Ilyas, the grandson of Hazi Shabrati, the late founder
Mission Delhi – Pappu, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 29, 2020July 29, 20200 Homecoming dress. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He’s shining brightly. Pappu is wearing trousers whose bright shade is difficult to determine—is it some sort of brown or mustard color, or brownish-mustard, or something else entirely. Doesn’t matter. The pants are very attractive but they are outshone by his fluorescent orange shirt printed with the title of a Hindi film rap song—Apna time ayega (My time will come). The sleeves have “TikTok TikTok” running along their length. “These are new clothes, I bought them just yesterday,” he says, blushing. The only old thing he’s wearing is his check gamcha, that he has stylishly knotted about his pants like a loose belt. Pappu is a daily-wage labourer and this morning he is walking through
Mission Delhi – Preeti Sachdeva, Devilal Colony Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 29, 2020July 29, 20200 Lost world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She would do facial, manicure, pedicure, haircut and many other things in a space she created all by herself. But the dreamworld has ended. She finally shut down her beauty parlour for women on 22 June. “In these days of physical distancing, very few people are ready to be in such close proximity with somebody outside their immediate family,” observes Preeti Sachdeva. In her 40s, Ms Sachdeva was getting very few customers after she reopened the parlour, in May, when the coronavirus triggered lockdown was lifted. “It was no longer viable... I was finding it tough to pay the rent to the landlord, and I also had to pay her monthly salary to Mamta,
Home Sweet Home – Arunima Pakalapati’s 27th Floor Balcony, Gurgaon Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - July 27, 2020July 27, 20200 Into thin air. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Her address is like a shifting sand; it moves often. Because her husband works in a multinational oil company, and regularly has to switch from one “location” to another, their country of residence is changing every two years or so. And this is how, in the previous decade, the Hyderabad native Arunima Pakalapati, 37, has come to live in Oman, Republic of Congo, the US, Kuwait, and now in India—in Gurgaon in the Greater Delhi Region. And now, amid the raging coronavirus pandemic, she rarely gets an opportunity to leave the borders of her 27th-floor condo. But who on Earth would ever want to step out of a house with such a fabulous balcony? “See,
Mission Delhi – Arman, Sadar Bazar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 27, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Despite living without a house in a tough city like Delhi, despite having to brave every day the dangerous times of the coronavirus pandemic, fruit seller Arman makes sure to have beauty in his life. In the form of pink bougainvilleas. This morning, bunches of the papery scentless flowers are artfully decked up on the mangoes piled up on his cart, here in central Delhi’s Sadar Bazar. “The decoration was my own idea,” says Arman, flashing a disarming smile that makes him so endearing that one would immediately want to shake his hands (but for coronavirus). Arman is as stylish as his cart—a white scarf, the gamcha, is flung about his tight fitting shirt. His hair falls
Mission Delhi – Nazma, New Palam Vihar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 24, 2020July 27, 20201 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It all began with the bicycle, all those years ago, in Saharanpur town in UP. She was just 8. “Actually it started with the 25 paise Babu (father) would give me every day,” says scooty owner Nazma. The 44-year-woman in Gurgaon's New Palam Vihar in the Greater Delhi Region is talking of her early experiments with riding her own vehicle. She would use the pocket money by father to rent a bicycle from a neighboring shop, and would ride it for fun. “I was the first girl in our mohalla to go about on a cycle on her own,” the lady says modestly during her chat, this evening on WhatsApp video. Nazma might have been a feminist
City Hangout – DDA Park, Mathura Road Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - July 24, 20200 A discreet enclosure. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] These days, it is difficult to recommend a place outside home that offers physical distancing possibilities. One comes close. But there are many buts about this place. It is thick with trees, but this green padding is too thin to screen off the traffic noise (Mathura Road is next door). It is very close to the touristy zoo, but tourists rarely visit it— even during the pre-corona era. It is packed with grassy slopes, graves, and even a small ruined monument, but the entire area is so small that you could cover it in ten minutes. The forlorn signboard outside calls this place a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Park. Inside – plenty of weedy
City Series – Suvojit Banerjee in Atlanta, We the Isolationists (415th Corona Diary) Corona Diary by The Delhi Walla - July 24, 20200 Our corona diary. [Text and photo by Suvojit Banerjee] I close my eyes in self-isolation from corona and I see that in the abundance of the cosmos, our microscopic existences are futile. My conscience is half-awake, as if running on low power inside an abandoned ship floating across the realms of nothingness. Lightyears away-the yearning never gets better. I may become as barren as the moon, but the dry riverbeds of emotion remain etched on my soul, a stark reminder that eons ago I had a heart. Now - it is just a vacuum, a sense of want without a body, a relic of my own unbeing. “We the Isolationists” series urges folks from any part of the world to share a brief diary