City Hangout – Arpit Kakar’s Staircase Tea, Daryaganj
An extraordinary chai stall. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Arpit Kakar always has trouble getting home. Ever since he set up a tea stall by filling up his staircase with everything from boxes of tea leaves to a…
Mission Delhi – Bhure Khan, Sheetla Colony
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The plastic banner clings to the roadside fence. Bhure Khan Baraf Depot supplies ice in great quantity for wedding banquets — though any customer could also buy individual ice slabs directly from the…
Mission Delhi – Sanjay, Central Delhi
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] From a distance, he looks like a dot in the world. The sprawling ground has only this man. He is sitting quietly on the edge…
Mission Delhi – Simran, Janakpuri
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is how it is. Simran feels most alive when she’s walking on the streets, perhaps somewhere around the historic Jama Masjid in Old Delhi,…
City Life – Downton Abbey Civilisation, Sunder Nursery
The world of the super-rich. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Seen Downton Abbey, the series on an aristocratic family and their servants, in 19th century England? Who would have imagined that it would take a historical necropolis to…
City Legend – Meraj Ahmed Nizami, Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
Delhi’s greatest qawwal. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This winter marks the fifth death anniversary of Meraj Ahmed Nizami, the great qawwal of the sufi shrine of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The news of Meraj’s passing had gone…
Debris of Life & Mind – Actor & Model Aram Khan’s Dream, Bombay
Sharing a dream. [Text by Aram Khan, photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] I saw in my dream struggling for my dream. I worked hard the whole day and yet had a shortage of food. I was tired but relentlessly toiling….
City Landmark – Blue Wall, Sheikh Kaleemullah Jehanabadi’s Sufi Shrine
Beautiful blues. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is something gracefully fragile about the blue colour — especially in Delhi, where blue skies are more of a myth. In our city, every bit of blue, whatever its shade,…
City Moment – Winter Sunset, Jama Masjid, Gurgaon
The perfect Delhi moment. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is winter and the sun is at long last our friend. But some things don’t change: the most poignant time of the season is still the twilight hour,…
Debris of Life & Mind – Copywriter’s Lidiya Prasad’s Dream, Cochin
Sharing a dream. [Text by Lidiya Prasad, photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is a world way above, in a perpetually purple sky. It looks surprisingly like a museum, or our parliament, only upside down. As it hangs in a…
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