City Hangout - Bat Island, Deer Park

City Hangout – Bat Island, Deer Park

The evening show. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sun is gone, the sky is dark. Bats are flying over the lake, letting out shrill chee-chee cries. They are spilling out in all directions, as chaotically and in…

Mission Delhi - Gauri Mohan Gupta, Sushant Lok

Mission Delhi – Gauri Mohan Gupta, Sushant Lok

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Many book-loving Delhi homes have Shakespeare, Tagore, Tolstoy and Ghalib. French author Marcel Proust is more difficult to spot, though his novel is counted among…

City Hangout - Northeast Grocery Shop, Chirag Delhi

City Hangout – Northeast Grocery Shop, Chirag Delhi

Taste of home. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s called Northeast Grocery Shop but it is not in north-east Delhi. It is, in fact, in the southern part of the city, in Chirag Delhi village. And yet the…

City Food - Kamruddin's Chuski, South Delhi

City Food – Kamruddin’s Chuski, South Delhi

Summer’s chiller. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Hot afternoon. Empty lane. Kamruddin enters. A young girl runs after his cart, asking the man for his signature treat, which she calls “baraf ka gola”—a ball of crushed ice on…

City Hangout - Peer Baba's Courtyard, Mohalla Qabristan

City Hangout – Peer Baba’s Courtyard, Mohalla Qabristan

Green oasis. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some birds, some cats, a few trees, a few graves, and absolute quietude. Spending five minutes here is enough to secede from the life of everyday. Duties, concerns, plans, worries, prospects,…

Delhi's Bandaged Heart - Raj Tekwani's Poem to 'Forever', DLF Phase 4

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Raj Tekwani’s Poem to ‘Forever’, DLF Phase 4

Poetry in the city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] As we reach the first anniversary of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, here’s a poem about our housebound days, then threatening to go on forever. In his early 20s, poet Raj Tekwani is both…

Mission Delhi - Farhan Zaidi, Khureji Khas

Mission Delhi – Farhan Zaidi, Khureji Khas

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] These are bigger rooms, and here’s a hall too—finally ensuring a separate drawing room to host guests. After a lifetime in Old Delhi, Farhan Zaidi,…

Home Sweet Home - House of Labourers, Ansari Road

Home Sweet Home – House of Labourers, Ansari Road

So open, yet secretive. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The doors are locked, their wood rotting. The window jaalis are cobwebbed. The balconies are blocked with bricks. The weather-beaten building must be empty inside. Yet, it shelters very…

City Landmark - Maharani Stella's Grave, Christian Cemetery, Prithviraj Road

City Landmark – Maharani Stella’s Grave, Christian Cemetery, Prithviraj Road

An extraordinary life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She was a cabaret dancer in Paris and a maharani in Kapurthala—but her tomb, surprisingly, chose not to mention it. Like all graveyards, the Christian Cemetery in central Delhi’s Prithviraj…

Mission Delhi - Prachi Sharma, Saidulajab

Mission Delhi – Prachi Sharma, Saidulajab

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is Tagore. This is Yeats. And this is Vikram Seth—says Prachi Sharma, pointing out cuttings of poems stuck on her closet. She wants to…