City Landmark – Central News Agency, Connaught Place Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - November 30, 20220 Mother of news stands. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Before he became the prime minister, Manmohan Singh was a regular. Painter MF Husain too would be sighed here. But this place in Connaught Place is more than its famous patrons. It is like no other place in Delhi. Here is a shrine to the pre-digital era. A time when all the newspaper readers were offline subscribers, and read their news from the printed paper, when they diligently wrote handwritten letters to the editor, when they made clippings of interesting news articles and had them laminated for posterity. Central News Agency is one of Delhi’s oldest companies distributing Indian as well as foreign newspapers in the country. Founded by Balak Ram
City Obituary – Mirza Yaseen Baig, Founder of Midland Bookstores Life by The Delhi Walla - November 26, 20221 Passing of an icon. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Warm, affable, easy-going and with a crackling voice, it was easier to imagine him spending his waking hours beside his grandchildren, or beside chirpy flocks of pigeons. But his life was wedded to books. Mirza Yaseen Baig, one of the iconic pioneers of Delhi’s book universe, who founded the Midland book stores, died on Thursday, November 24, 2pm, aged 94. Until the pandemic started in 2020, Mirza Baig would come daily without fail to his bookstore outlet at Aurobindo Market, despite his advanced years and even though he was no longer able to hear properly, and had to reduce his interaction with customers. He would sit the whole day outside the bookshop,
City Faith – Bankey Bihari Mandir, Inder Walli Galli Faith by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 2022November 20, 20221 House of faith. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The lady in blue sari is walking down the lane of Inder Walli Galli, here in Old Delhi. At each step she pauses and takes a deep breath. She stops in front of a building of old-fashioned lakhori bricks, walks to the wooden door, and turns the key in the lock. The door opens, creakingly. Pitch darkness within. She turns on the lights. Brass bells materialise. This turns out to be a temple. Bankey Bihari Mandir “is more than a hundred years old,” she mutters, pulling apart the curtain of the central shrine. “Bhagwan Kishenji” comes into view. His sculpted face is black, his lips are deep red, and he is in
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Proust Scholar William C. Carter, On Marcel Proust’s 100th Death Anniversary Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - November 18, 20220 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] How many people do you know who have actually read In Search of Lost Time in its entirety? Marcel Proust’s French novel, À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu, has seven volumes and more than a million words — the first volume completed 100 years in 2013. Entombed with the label of a classic, the book suffers from the undeserved reputation of being a tough read. The works of US-based William C. Carter, possibly the most renowned scholar on the French novelist in the English-speaking world, help dispel the thick mist of supposed incomprehension that conceals Proust’s work from most of us. Author of Marcel Proust: A Life, Mr Carter has been hailed as “Proust’s definitive biographer”
City Library – Premchand’s Archives, Premchand Archives & Literary Center Library by The Delhi Walla - November 17, 20220 Author's home. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dainty and dense, and tidy enough to be decipherable. This is his hastlipi (handwriting) in Hindi. And his likhai (handwriting) in Urdu, ditto. The writing of Premchand (1880-1936) is a sangam (confluence) of these two languages of his homeland, UP. Naturally, the best way to feel close to the writer is to be intimate with his 300 afsane (short stories), 14 upanyas (novels), and hundreds of tanqeedi mazameen (literary criticisms), nibandh (essays), tehreerien (speeches) and khutut (letters). The next best way is to head to Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia. The university harbours an abhilekhagar (archives) of Premchand’s extensive writings in Hindi and Urdu, as well as a gosha (collection) of critical writings on his entire
City Monument – Anonymous Ruin, Mehrauli Monuments by The Delhi Walla - November 17, 20220 A sad beauty. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is there. And it is not there. Both assertions are based on ground realities. This severely damaged edifice in Mehrauli is the very essence of contemporary Delhi, where relics of the past lie stranded and forgotten, like satellite debris in the space. Nobody seems to know the name of this souvenir of stones. Most of it is lost to time, and yet the remains are sufficiently substantial to ship us into the past. The monument is essentially left with a doorway, an arch, two tiny domes and a wall crisscrossed with long flowing cracks that resemble the long flowing rivers when depicted on maps. The remnants look very fragile, as if waiting
City Food – Shravan Kumar’s Tea Stall & Shiv Temple, Bhogal Food by The Delhi Walla - November 15, 20220 A spot of refuge. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Such a soothing place, feeling so drowsy here. The elderly man in white kurta pajama is indeed nodding off. Can it be because of the easy winter light streaming through these peepal leaves? This spot in Jangpura’s Bhogal comprises of a small Shiv temple, beside which is tucked a chai place. This late afternoon, Shravan Kumar Tea Stall is scented with the mixed aroma of adrak and doodh. The mandir and the tea stall are like an oasis on this roadside, otherwise lined with motor workshops. A stack of scooter tyres are placed right outside the chai stall, while a few bikes are parked in front of the mandir, perhaps waiting to
City Food – Daulat ki Chaat, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - November 14, 20220 The CP spirit. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It looks exactly like Old Delhi’s daulat ki chaat. But young Lokesh in Gurgaon’s Sadar Bazar, wheeling his cart about the post office building, insists it is makhan malai. To a gourmand in Timbuktu, daulat ki chaat might sound like something as spicy and hot as any desi chaat, but there is nothing à la chaat about daulat. It is as creamy as malai, as soft as makhan—the name Lokesh gave to this sweet sin is closer to reality. Whatever, as any well-fed Purani Dilli connoisseur will tell you, the dish pops up temporarily along Old Delhi gallis and kuchas around this segment of the year. Lokesh’s so-called makhan malai also
City Hangout – F Block, Connaught Place Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 11, 2022November 11, 20220 The CP spirit. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The benches are stained with bird droppings. The muddy ground behind is littered with rat holes. The neem tree isn’t particularly shady. And yet, this place gives you a shat-pratishat feel of the Connaught Place (CP). For the record, there are many ways to experience Delhi’s colonial-era commercial district. These are some popular ones: Lounging in Central Park. Making endless circles of the Inner Circle and Outer Circle. Eating out in heritage eateries such as Kwality or Indian Coffee House, or shopping in iconic shops such as Oriental Fruits Mart or Ram Chander and Sons toy store. And then there is sitting on this little plaza on F block. This afternoon, as always, nothing is happening here.
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Rekha Massey, Paharganj Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - November 11, 2022November 11, 20220 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Each time she flashes a smile, its sunshine radiance lights up her Bubbles, the boutique she has been running inside a Paharganj cafè for 15 years. Delhi’s backpackers’ district is yet to recover from the pandemic, but Rekha Massey remains optimistic for her establishment. It is crammed with tops, shorts, skirts, scarves (and also tatty Lonely Planets in Hebrew and French that Paharganj travellers occasionally leave behind at her place). In her early 40s, she commutes daily on the Metro from her home in distant Dwarka. She agrees 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