City Obituary – Haji Faiyazuddin, Old Delhi Life by The Delhi Walla - April 30, 2021April 30, 20210 Life of a gentleman. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If you were to visit him after a prolonged period, he would frown at you with stern eyes, but his face would instantly dissolve into a welcoming smile. Haji Faiyazuddin seemed to be made of wit and grace. The gentle-mannered Mr Faiyazuddin, who celebrated his 82nd birthday in February by cutting his favourite chocolate truffle cake, died on Wednesday morning due to Covid-19 complications. He spent his final weeks in a south Delhi hospital, far from the world he knew encyclopedically—the Walled City of Shahjahanabad. A resident of Chawri Bazar, Mr Faiyazuddin was Old Delhi’s living landmark. Partly so for being the proprietor of the iconic Haji Hotel, that was founded
Mission Delhi – Saumya Mallika Mathur, Noida Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - April 28, 2021April 28, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] She lives with Hayati, her cat. This is her parents’ house in Noida’s Sector 19. Both passed away last year. Sitting in the bedroom, Saumya Mallika Mathur, 26, recalls on a WhatsApp video chat that this is the very room “where I slept with my mother, while she fought her third cancer battle.” At this time last year, both were in the hospital hoping “we would make it through this one too”. Her mother died four months ago; her father died early last year after a prolonged illness. “I feel Mummy in this room.” Earlier working in digital marketing, Ms Mathur is on a sabbatical “focusing on grieving and
City Neighbourhood – Pandemic Postcard, Hauz Khas Village Regions by The Delhi Walla - April 27, 20210 Juxtaposition of beauty and tragedy. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The evening breeze is cool. The blue sky is darkening. A pale moon has already surfaced. The air is filled with the incessant sound of ambulance sirens. The roads on which those ambulances are running cannot be seen amid the thick tree cover, but these desperate vehicles must be heading to nearby Safdarjung Hospital, or to All India Institute of Medical Sciences. If you count out the sound of sirens, then this corner of south Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village is picture postcard perfect. Stony remains of the 14th century are speckled across an expanse of green. The Hauz Khas lake is glimmering in the distance. The village’s lanes are completely empty
Mission Delhi – Nazm Kaur, New Colony, Sector 7 Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - April 26, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] If this doesn’t work out, then maybe she can do something else — but no. Nazm Kaur has no plan B. Neither do her parents, with whom she lives in Gurgaon’s New Colony, Sector 7, in the Greater Delhi Region. The entire family, including Nazm’s brother who lives in Bangalore, are dance instructors. Ms Kaur and her parents teach dancing in their 5-year-old studio called Nrityarang, that they run in a first-floor hall nearby, large enough to accommodate 20 students. Or rather, that’s what they used to do. “The pandemic totally disrupted our life,” says Ms Kaur. In her 20s, she is sitting between her parents at
City Moment – Prayer Witnessed, Outside Jama Masjid Gate No. 2 Moments by The Delhi Walla - April 25, 20210 A Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is morning and the newspaper vendor, passing on his bicycle, is carrying front pages filled with dreadful news on Covid-19. The narrow lane is otherwise empty of people more or less — it goes past Jama Masjid’s gate no. 2, in Old Delhi. The entrance to the mosque is locked. The popular tea stall nearby is closed. But then the city is under curfew due to the pandemic. The only people to be seen are a few families sleeping on the pavement—they have been living here for years. The only other living being around is a brown dog snoozing on a manhole. Now a rickshaw puller enters the scene. He stops
Mission Delhi – Om Kumar, Sector 14, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - April 22, 2021April 25, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is 13, old enough to realise that “eating my favourite veg pizza is not wise these days”. A typical pizza is expensive, Om Kumar explains, and his craze for it would be a drag on his “Papa’s” diminished resources. His father runs a tea stall in Gurgaon's Sector 14 in the Greater Delhi Region. Chatting this afternoon on WhatsApp video, Mr Kumar, an 8th standard student, gives a bleak picture of his days in the family’s one-room apartment, as the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic is raging on with full blast in the world outside. “My PC (desktop computer) stopped working five months ago. I had
City Food – Deepak Namkeen and Papad Store, Subzi Mandi, Gurgaon Food by The Delhi Walla - April 20, 2021April 20, 20210 The world of salty savouries. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You might never know the names of all the birds, or all the flowers, or all the trees, or all the constellations in the sky. But to learn the names of a great variety of namkeen is doable. Just head to Deepak Namkeen and Papad Store in Gurgaon’s Subzi Mandi in the Greater Delhi Region. The counter is crammed with a dizzying range of the salty savouries. These days one is used to packaged namkeen, sold in every common grocery and coming in fairly limited versions (sev puri, khatti meeethi, aloo bhujiya, etc.). But seeing so many versions available in this tiny shop shall make you respect the namkeen a great
City Life – Veeru Bhai’s Self-Made Cart, Central Delhi Life by The Delhi Walla - April 18, 20210 Life of the cart. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Carts are regular sights in this city of street hawkers. Usually they are but a broad plank of wood plonked over four wheels. But Veeru Bhai’s fruit cart—or thela, as he calls it— is different. Yes it is of wood and wheels, but it is much smaller than the common variety, and looks like one of those trolleys that apron-clad maître d’s push around in elegant restaurants. “I made this cart on my own,” says Veeru Bhai. This afternoon he is going about a central Delhi street with his cart decked up with fruit salad, each disposable bowl containing sliced pieces of kiwis, strawberries and dragon fruit. A native of Allahabad in UP,
City Landmark – Unknown Grave, Near Humayun’s Tomb Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - April 15, 2021April 15, 20210 A roadside resting place. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It lies by the roadside, looking abandoned, ringed by weedy bushes and by hints of all sorts of litter and hidden lives crawling within. This striking-looking stone grave, in central Delhi, is to be found on the traffic-free road that goes from Humayun’s Tomb to Damdama Sahib Gurudwara. Who lies buried there? Who knows. While Delhi harbours millions of people struggling through their daily lives, it is also a metropolis of the dead. Of many graveyards and of many old unknown graves littered across the landscape — today finding themselves by the busy avenues, amid the municipality gardens, along the chai stalls, and on less travelled footpaths where they remain hidden from view. Some
City Walk – Main Avenue, CR Park Walks by The Delhi Walla - April 12, 20210 The Bengal country. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The men look carefree, playing cards by the pavement. The vegetable seller is napping by his cart. A balloon hawker is slowly dragging his bicycle and the helium balloons, tied to the handle bar, are bobbing in the air. A woman walks past purposefully, wearing her sari in the Bengali style. Strolling in south Delhi’s CR Park’s main avenue instantly transports you into an upscale Kolkata neighbourhood. More intense is the neighbourhood’s gentle rhythm. Everything feels unhurried, like ripples spreading slowly through a pond, whose water surface patiently absorbs all minor disturbances. A part of the road is lined with bungalows, each with its distinct individuality, as if harbouring its own Netflix series. Some