City Walk – Narrow Lane, Hazrat Khwaja Mir Dard Colony Walks by The Delhi Walla - December 13, 20220 A passage to life. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi encompasses millions of us, nameless masses. But know better: our lives might be countless but they are as distinct, rich and profound as any epic. And they vividly play out on the city’s millions of streets. Somehow this spirit of our city shines in a narrow lane where two women are sitting, soaking themselves in the warm November sunshine. This alley vividly showcases the minutiae of the relationship we citizens unconsciously strike with what is, basically, an infrastructural amenity, connecting our intimate hyperlocal neighbourhoods to the vast, baggy impersonal metropolis. The lane starts on a broad pavement in central Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Road. It faces the sprawling grounds of Ramilila Maidan but
Mission Delhi – Suraj Kumar, Sadar Bazar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 11, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is the hawker of hawa — the breeze. Well, in a manner of speaking. For he is selling phirki, this light disk composed of pieces of crisp colourful paper that, when pushed by the breeze, wheels round and round. Like some disco ball in an ‘80s disco. And on this cool sunny afternoon, it is extra breezy. The dozens of multi-coloured phirkiyan attached to the tall wooden stand he is holding are rotating so fast that they don’t look like anything tangible. More like the shimmer of a rainbow on a quick-flowing river. “I make these myself,” says Suraj Kumar, modestly. The young man is standing on one
Mission Delhi – Babar Ali, Jama Masjid, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 4, 2022December 30, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is five minutes to 2. The afternoon is no longer as hot as it were just a day back. The father and his little son sit down to start their lunch. It is a gravy dish of baingan, accompanied with rice, lots of rice. Babar Ali is a relatively new face among the alm seekers of Jama Masjid, the mosque in Gurgaon’s Sadar Bazar. The other two are Mujibur, who has been here for 7 years, and Akbari, who has been coming here for five years. They all sit beside the staircase that goes up the mosque. This is a small plaza, crammed with a few kiosks