Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Flute Seller Qurban Ansari, Around Town Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - August 18, 20221 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] All day long he saunters along the streets selling flutes. Qurban Ansari, 19, lives in Gurugram’s Madipur Chowk in Sector 19 with parents, who are retired labourers, and wife, Noorsaba Khatoon, whom he married a year ago. One cloudy afternoon, while walking on the road, he agreed to become a part of the Proust Questionnaire series in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. Your favorite virtue. I earn through hard work, so I have sakoon (satisfaction). Your favorite qualities in a man. Honesty. Your favorite qualities in a woman. Her instinct to care for her family. What do you appreciate the most in your friends? Inssniyat (humanity). Helping those who are in distress, and
City Food – Rajbir’s Nankhatai, Turkman Gate Food by The Delhi Walla - August 18, 20220 A stall of sturggles. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Rajbir is a bearer of two legacies. One is of a street delicacy with origins going back to the Europeans. The other is more intimate. It is the legacy of his life’s struggles. This afternoon, passersby are coming to his nankhatati cart intermittently, here in Old Delhi’s Turkman Gate. One woman hesitantly enquires about the price. He says, “Dus ke paanch (10 for 5).” Rajbir has been selling nankhatai biscuits in the Walled City for 40 years. He left his MP village when he was a child. “There were problems at home.” His father, who had a stall in Delhi’s Kishanganj, had suddenly died. “I had to earn for the family.”