Mission Delhi – Vishal Kumar, Mathura Road Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 18, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His midday meal is always like a moveable feast, each day in a different setting. Vishal Kumar is lunching today here on Mathura Road. Yesterday he had his lunch in distant Anand Vihar. The day before he lunched in Moti Bagh. There is no knowing the site of tomorrow’s lunch. “Depends on the sawari (passenger) I’ll get,” he says, tearing a piece of roti as gently as a sensitive man might pluck a rose. An auto driver, Mr Kumar never eats “bahar ka khana”, the outside food, not even any light snack. He rides his auto across the city from morning to evening, and during these long
City Hangout – District Park, Jasola Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - September 18, 20210 By a hospital. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The mere sight of a hospital stirs up our deepest fears. The world around it suddenly seems too carefree, its concerns flimsy. That’s what makes Jasola District Park in south Delhi so extraordinary. It’s the only public garden in the city that exhibits the most panoramic view of a hospital. The entire hulking edifice of the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital spreads out across the length of the park’s northern boundary, beyond an impenetrable bank of trees. This evening, it is looming over like a mountain. For now, the hospital-facing side of the park is empty. It’s all trees and metallic benches — no humans. The park is knitted into a finely trimmed patchwork of