City Faith – Hara Mandir, Gali Choori Wallan Faith by The Delhi Walla - March 5, 20211 Faith in green. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The temple is immersed in utmost quietude, so much so that you feel that if you concentrate enough, you might hear Devi Durga breathe. Attired in an orange fabric, her idol faces the door. Hidden in a narrow alley of Old Delhi’s Galli Choori Wallan, Hara Mandir has the hushed remoteness of rarely frequented pilgrimage sites, like those found in the snowy reaches of the Himalayas. You rarely see visitors here. Its exquisite beauty remains largely untouched. Its name derives from the wall outside, painted green, or hara. Inside, the most striking feature is of the chessboard floor. The walls are sculpted at various places with taaks, or arched niches, a disappearing
Mission Delhi – Simon Khatoon, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - March 3, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The woman in white sooti (cotton) sari is walking erect, with a big sack on her head. She is carrying it with confidence, showing neither fear nor instability as she wades through the lanes of this central Delhi neighbourhood. Even more astonishing is that she is balancing it without the aid of her arms. On being stopped and complimented for this skill, she smiles, but without shaking her head, which stays as still as statue. “I have been doing it for years at this time of the morning,” says Simon Khatoon modestly. In her 60s, she is heading home after filling up her sack with
City Season – First Semal Flowering, ITO Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 1, 20210 Red spring. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] They fall down with a thudding sound one after another, the red semal flowers. Their blooming marks the arrival of Delhi’s most pleasant, though most brief season—when it’s neither cold nor hot, and that dengue fever is still some months away. The semal trees, unidentifiable the rest of the year, are suddenly as noticeable these days as those famous Buckingham Palace foot guards in red tunics. As if in flames, they tend to capture our attention in the most unexpected places—through a metro train window, or behind a shanty, or in one case, towering above a flyover. Semal is one of the 252 species of trees found in Delhi. Its branches grow in tiers. They