Mission Delhi – Muhammed Zafar, Chitli Qabar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - March 4, 20230 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] You rarely see him talk. His silent face expresses enigma, and thoughts difficult to decipher. He must be an introvert, ill-at-ease with communication. That’s a total misconception about the man. He talks to goats, to sheep. “I can understand what they say by gazing at their face,” he says in a flat tone, as if he were stating something as obvious as the fact that water is wet and sky is blue. Muhammed Zafar is a meat shop owner, and at 65 is the oldest working meat shop man in Chitli Qabar Bazar. This evening, in a full-sleeve pale orange shirt, chequered lungi and snow-white hair, he
City Season – Leaf Fall, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 4, 20230 Season's losses. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] See—a biscuit packet, a chips packet, a juice tetra-pack, an orange sachet, two paper cups, a plastic thaila, another plastic thaila, one more plastic thaila… all empty. These discards are many but still difficult to spot, for they are enmeshed into hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of fallen leaves on the footpath, by Gurgaon’s Mianwali Colony. Welcome to the oddest time in the Delhi region. They say it is, or soon to be, springtime in the western world, when trees dress up in new leaves. But in Delhi, the leaves are steadfastly falling from scores of trees, dressing up the roadsides instead. Sample these sights: In a posh south Delhi locality, a black dog is asleep