Mission Delhi – Mohmu, New Palam Vihar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - March 16, 2022March 16, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The land is sprawled across acres of openness, punctuated with scrubby bushes and stand-alone houses. Far away, the grey multi-storeyed buildings look like scarecrows. On the other side, an expressway is coming up, its elevated concrete unspooling atop an older artery. Amid these empty expanses of Gurgaon’s New Palam Vihar in the Greater Delhi Region, an elderly man is sitting on a low brick wall that clearly demarcates a privately owned plot of real estate. If this were a painting, the artist could have guiltily rendered this figure by a single dot of the brush. In his 60s, Mohmu, originally a farmer, looks about the dusty scenery and
City Hangout – Spring-Time Subz Burj, Mathura Road Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - March 14, 20222 A panorama of colours. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Holi has arrived in advance, heralded in a dream potion of red, green, and two strains of blue. The sheeny shades are so charged with lustiness that you fear a sudden breeze might splatter them into the air. This is currently among the most stirring sights in Delhi, here at the traffic roundabout on Mathura Road. The setting’s flamboyant green is issuing out from the grassy ground. The more spirited of the two blues is emanating from the dome of Subz Burj, the 16th century tomb at the centre of the traffic island, while the other blue is glaring off the clear sky, the season’s brief gift to our smoggy metropolis. And
City Landmark – A Vanishing Old House, Jacobpura Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - March 13, 20220 A disappearing souvenir. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] History-minded Instagrammers must urgently walk down Old Gurgaon’s mohallas, in the Greater Delhi Region, to snap and upload the photos of all the long-time buildings that are gradually vanishing. Maybe, an archive can be built of the way this world used to be. Take this old house in Jacobpura, for example. It used to stand intact with its arches, courtyards and weather-beaten wooden doors. This afternoon, it is being dismantled. It was lying abandoned for some years; the owners had moved out. “A new building will come up in its place,” reveals the gentleman supervising the demolition with a team of migrant labourers from Jhansi. The bricks that made up the roof are piled up
City Monument – Pandemic-Era Chhoti Gumti, Green Park Monuments by The Delhi Walla - March 11, 20220 Society of the dome. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Let us go then, you and I, when the afternoon is spread out against the grass. Like on this afternoon of March. The sky is so blue that it looks like an Instagram filter has been applied to it. While the ground is divided into two halves: a sunny one (empty) and a shaded one (crowded with people). A stone mausoleum stands at the center, as if to demarcate shade from glare. Chhoti Gumti monument in south Delhi’s Green Park is a very chhoti (tiny) Lodhi-era ruin. There is no record of it in books of monuments. The visitor’s best approach is to slowly walk around it. The perspective is beautiful, especially from
City Landmark – Ruined House, Gurgaon Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - March 11, 20220 Old time, sighted. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The walls are dilapidated. A part of the roof has caved in. The underlying bricks peek out of the peeling paint like raw bloodied wounds. Encrusted with the degradations of years, it stands like time frozen in a capsule. The old ramshackle bungalow lies forlorn in one corner of Gurgaon’s Sadar Bazar. A narrow lane renders it remote from the market’s ungovernable chaos. Alone and uninhabited, the edifice stands royally aloof in its decay. Not a soul is seen here this sweltering afternoon. The area is completely silent. There are other modern houses that seem occupied but their doors and windows are closed. Upon a more careful observation, one discovers that the empty bungalow
Mission Delhi – Damil Ahmad Beg, Zeenat-ul Masjid Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - March 11, 2022March 11, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi’s Zeenat-ul Masjid is like a miniature version of the Jama Masjid. There is another monument inside, equally photogenic and more unique. This monument happens to be an edifice in flesh and blood. For 64 years, tailor Damil Ahmad Beg has been a daily sight here, along with his pedal sewing machine—underneath the mosque’s gateway. He looks young. “I’m 86,” says the slim and fit Mr Beg, raising his eyes as if daring to challenge his interlocutor’s disbelief. This afternoon, the venerable gent is preparing a seat cover for a scooter, his hands are moving swiftly about the sewing machine. “Earlier I used to make covers for
Mission Delhi – Bhola, Ashram Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - March 10, 2022March 10, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Bhola is walking along a city street, carrying a wooden staff tied with plastic packets of pink and yellow cotton candies. The street is not crowded at all, perhaps because it is morning. The hawker looks utterly alone. “But I’m not alone,” Bhola contradicts politely. “I am surrounded by the blessings of my parents.” A native of Hathras in UP, Bhola, 31, explains that he never feels lonely because “when I’m away from home, the people at home have me in their mind… I’m never forgotten.” Sitting on the pavement, Bhola says that each time he misses his loved ones, he silently utters their names. “A man is
City Hangout – Amour de Café, Chitli Qabar Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - March 8, 20220 New in old. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Spitting, swearing, feet-shuffling—Oh là là! The market lane is quivering like a rushing river—a cotton candy man is shoving his way through the yelling crowd, followed by a hawker of glass bangles, followed by a guava seller, followed by a battery rickshaw. A black cat with irregular white stripes is inspecting the scene from a high-altitude tin roof. A typical Walled City chaos. Yet you feel aloof. The very French sounding Amour de Café is the only place in old-world Chitli Qabar Bazar to indulge in a quiet me-time with an Americano (or double espresso!). Just like the gentry in posh Khan Market. Opened just before the Omicron wave of the pandemic, the glass
City Life – Sania and Her Family, Rahim Road Life by The Delhi Walla - March 6, 20220 New arrivals. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is early morning. The couple and their four children got off minutes ago from the overnight train. Unlike many other passengers who were busy hailing the auto or booking the cab for their respective destinations in the city, they simply walked out of Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station on foot. Now they are passing through a tree-lined avenue named after the legendary poet Rahim. The pathway skirts along the bungalows and apartments of upscale Nizamuddin East. The couple’s eldest child, a girl, excitedly exclaims to the mother, “These houses are huge.” Moments later, she becomes the family spokesperson, introducing her family to this reporter. “My mother, Rehana Sheikh, my father Aslam Sheikh — he
City Season – Semal in Bloom, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 3, 20220 Red blessings. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The glass-concrete office complex in Gurgaon’s Shankar Chowk is gigantic beyond belief. On the other hand, the prettier pavement tree stands some distance away. It is glossed with thick red flowers that appear to be leaning towards the building, as if wanting to give a friendly peck on its intimidating facade. And, suddenly, a flower falls. The blossoming of semal marks the arrival of the year’s most moderate season — when it is neither cold nor hot. Unidentifiable the rest of the year, these trees are suddenly as noticeable as the pink cotton candy hawkers in Kinari Bazaar, catching our attention as we carry on with our dreary life in the Metro train or the