Mission Delhi – Adam Burakowski, Gujarat Bhawan Restaurant Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 31, 20231 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Moong dal, arhar dal, vegetable kofta, aloo gobhi matar, farsan, choorma laddu, dhokla, tillar papad and fresh rotis. This picturesque Gujarati thali will soon be a sweet, aching memory to the Polish ambassador. With his five-year term in India coming to an end, Adam Burakowski is to wind down the cozy routine he had built so lovingly around this homey meal. Each time a short half-hour spell of appointment-free afternoon chanced to ease his otherwise packed schedule at the embassy in Shanti Path, the ambassador would be ferried in his long, black car by chauffeur Sunil Kumar to Gujarat Bhawan in Kautilya Marg—a mere five-minute drive. There,
City Walk – Gali Chandi Wali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 31, 20230 Rue du silver. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] See the photo. That deg is filled with molten chandi, the silver. Anybody can come and get a bowl full of it for 30 rupees. If only. But then it is Gali Chandi Wali after all. The deg is actually filled with spicy hot nihari. The eatery stamps the access to Chandi Wali. The lane was a locality of silver jewellers. No such trader exists here now. The sole banner hanging in the alley this silent afternoon is of “Imran Welding Works—old shutter & new shutter, window & gate repairing.” The dimly lit cul-de-sac is as narrow as a corridor in a Ghaziabad flat, and is a khichdi of kal (future), aaj
City Moment – Sense of a Place, Kabir Marg Moments by The Delhi Walla - January 28, 20230 Life of a traffic island. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A city gets truly authentic when it is not on show. Easier to find its soul in ordinary places, during ordinary moments, when nothing is happening. When one minute is like another minute; the rhythms of daily life staying uninterrupted. So here is time passing on a central Delhi traffic island, wordlessly, uneventfully. Two men are lying on the tiled ground, asleep. Another man — older — is perched on the armrest of an abandoned chair. An abandoned sofa some steps away is unoccupied. The traffic island marks the turning to Kabir Marg, off Panchkuian Road. It has the shape of a large leaf. The two men continue to be as motionless
Atget’s Corner – 1191-1195, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - January 28, 20230 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 1,00,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Five randomly picked pictures from this collection are regularly put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 1191 to 1195. 1191. O ma’am, I want
City Landmark – Lankeshwar Mahadev Mandir, New Delhi Railway Station Faith Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - January 26, 2023January 26, 20231 Gods by the tracks. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Saaye saaye, so whistles the forceful afternoon breeze. But the peepal is staying unmoved. No leaf stirs. Its branches, bare. The courtyard too is bare, of humans. But it is amply peopled with gods; the faces of the sacred idols as solemn as of an Himalayan tapasvi. And all around, dozens of brass bells are hanging from the many arches. While the alcove at the courtyard’s extremity is closed with a curtain. Now, New Delhi-Rohtak Intercity Express passes by. The rail tracks are within an arm’s reach of the temple. This has to be one of the most tranquil and oddly located shrines in the entire capital region. It lies within the
City Landmark – New Book Land, Janpath Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - January 25, 20230 A circle of books. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some places are like Mount Everest. You might not have been to them, but you know they are there. Same is the case with New Book Land. The shop is particularly familiar to every Janpath flea market loyalist, at least by sight—that round kiosk in the middle of a broad pave, with book-lined windows on all sides. On a busy day, the shopping crowd swarms around the place like ripples of sea waves, most people going onwards to get kurtis, jeans, jootis from Janpath shops, but some do pause to gaze a moment more at a book cover, or two. The landmark has been chronicled in dailies, mags, blogs, and Insta handles.
City Walk – Ansari Road, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 24, 20230 A road by the wall. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] They say as the plane descends on reaching Mumbai, a window-side flier gets to see a large number of rooftops in blue. And as you walk through Ansari Road, you pass through lots of barricades in blue—indicating that the old buildings within them are being broken down to make way for new generation updates. Named after freedom fighter Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, who had a house here, the Old Delhi avenue (formerly Daryaganj Road) is flanked by one of the longest surviving fragments of the Walled City’s wall. But it is better-known for housing the offices of publishing houses and book distribution companies. It must also be celebrated for being one of the
Atget’s Corner – 1186-1190, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - January 23, 20230 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 1,00,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Five randomly picked pictures from this collection are regularly put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 1186 to 1190. 1186. The Discreet Portrait of
Mission Delhi – Abid Husain, Turkman Gate Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 23, 2023January 26, 20230 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Perhaps he’s not special, this thought does cross his mind. After all, many, many, young men across this big wide world must have faced life’s disappointments. Just as he has. Like him, they too must still be hopeful for their tomorrow. “I will do better in the future,” he says. Abid Husain is 25, and this afternoon he is selling walnuts on a tatty cart, right beside a police post, close to the centuries-old Turkman Gate that marks the fasil, the outer limits, of Old Delhi. “I had a different occupation some 3-4 years ago,” he mutters, shrugging his shoulders, smiling faintly. A Kashmir native, Abid was barely out
Mission Delhi – Naushe Bhai, Chitli Qabar Chowk Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 21, 20230 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A wine-brown mongoose dashes off as a bow from an arrow, followed by a man with a bundle half his size, followed by a boy carrying a pigeon in each hand, followed by an E-rickshaw over-filled with giant cooking degs, followed by an old dog looking up to know whom to bark at and when, followed by a middle-aged man carrying a tray of chai glasses, followed by an elderly gent selling Jawahar cut jackets, followed by a cart puller hauling a plastic-wrapped mattress, followed by a scowling chacha in Kashmiri pheran, followed by a man dragging a tall goat by her flappy ear, followed by a