Mission Delhi – Muhammed Asif, Ghalib Academy Library Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - May 29, 20230 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This moment, the young man in white kurta-pajama is poring upon a book. This moment, he is scrawling on a pad. Now, he is thoughtfully patting his fingers on the forehead. Muhammed Asif is sitting by a table cluttered with newspapers, in a hall shelved with thousands of books. All is silence. He is the only person in the public library, in Delhi's Ghalib Academy, this slow afternoon, other than the librarian sitting on her desk, and a bored intern scanning musty rare volumes in a distant corner. Asif’s polite tone affirms his natural modesty, but doesn’t prevent him from admitting his own exclusivity. He is
City Life – Summer Refugees, Somewhere in Delhi Life by The Delhi Walla - May 29, 20230 Life in the heat wave. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] White hot noon. The road is deserted, here in this summertime spot of the megapolis. A group of men is huddled under a pavement tree, along with two dogs. The space underneath the green foliage is submerged in shade. The men have no home, one of them says. They collect street discards such as empty bottles etc., and hand them to a recycler. Humanely impossible to be directly under the sun in such extreme temperatures, they are waiting for the afternoon to pass, for less unbearable hours to return. Speaking for everyone, one of the men says that they own no “property” except for the clothes they are wearing, and some cash