Mission Delhi – Sharib, Kamra Bangash Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - May 18, 2023May 25, 20230 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] First, he plotted an escape from his Old Delhi. Then, he plotted a return. Sharib, 29, draws an arch of his eventful round journey. “My father is a retired mechanic. My bhai is a mechanic. I wanted to do something different, to get away from our Purani Dilli. With some efforts, I found a job far outside the (walled) city, in a mall... I gave up the retail line few years later, setting up my own business in our Purani Dilli, a business based on my hobby, I’m a hobbyist.” This afternoon, Sharib’s Moon Light Stars Fish Aquarium in Kamra Bangash is filled with small and huge aquariums,
City Landmark – Plaza Amphitheatre, Basant Lok Market Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - May 18, 2023May 18, 20230 Today with yesterdays. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sail boats in the harbour. Their white sails arrayed beside each other—see photo. But there’s no hulk, no deck, no mast, no river. No boats either. The sail-like objects are simply sheets of fabric spread upon an amphitheater, here in a corner of Basant Lok Market. This late hour, three-four women are sitting on the amphitheater’s tiered steps with shopping bags, looking contended. A few paces away a heavily tattooed loner is wolfing down something fried and greasy off a sauce-smeared paper plate. Meanwhile, a cool breeze has descended upon the summer evening like a memory of winter. The serene amphitheater feels detached from the surrounding commerce consisting of cafés, restaurants, and a
Mission Delhi – Kabeer, Chitli Qabar Chowk Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - May 16, 2023May 25, 20231 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Footstep sounds. At once blood rushes up his brains. He jumps off the bed, flees the room, rockets through the tiny sehan, locking himself into the bathroom, ears straining to identify the sound—seems to be a feminine voice. Some “khala” must have come to meet “Ammi.” Locked within, he spends very many minutes gazing at his face in the toilet mirror, thinking about random things, fearing somebody might call out for him to greet the guest. Footstep sounds again, receding. The visitor is gone. Kabeer opens the bathroom door. Normalcy returns. This is how this young man spent his years, at the home in Old Delhi’s Chitli Qabar
City Hangout – Foot-Over Bridges of Delhi-Jaipur Highway, Gurgaon Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - May 16, 20230 The bridges of highway county. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] So you too reach out for the tissue paper while watching reruns of Meryl Streep’s The Bridges of Madison County? That evergreen tearjerker is an adaptation of Robert James Waller bestseller novel. While the story is fiction, those covered bridges are for real, existing in a real Madison county, in Iowa, the US. If only some filmmaker set a similarly romantic movie around the super-atmospheric foot-over bridges of Gurgaon, particularly the ones along the Delhi-Jaipur highway, the smoggy artery that separates the old town from the new. Here’s a few of those bridges. Philosopher’s bridge The bridge, near the IFFCO Chowk crossing, is pickled in charming eccentricities. The signages on the roof
City Walk – Jama Masjid Road, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - May 15, 2023May 16, 20230 A way of mixed feelings. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The setting sun has made the sky incarnadine. Or, is the sandstone minar turning the sky red? Tall and utterly alone, suspended in the thin air, this lean tower is the only fragment of Jama Masjid clearly visible from Jama Masjid Road. Looking so surreal, its tip thurst against the twilight, the crows wheeling around it in slow motion. At the close of the day, while the road fills up with the rush hour racket, the minar stays aloof, stoic, sphinx-like, bathed in a quality beyond the power of words. The road itself is so grounded to the hard gritty life that it feels light years away from the dreamy minar.
City Home – A Fifth Floor Roof, Sukhdev Vihar Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - May 12, 20230 Seeing the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If only you can sneak into this art gallery to visit the tapestry embroidered with a panorama of our city. At first, it looks merely a messy maze of roofs, balconies, windows, staircases. Moments later you notice the maheen detailing. The artist’s insertion of black and white pani ki tankis is particularly clever in evoking the everydayness of life. While the barely perceptible glimpses of citizens ensconced within their homes express urban solitariness as profoundly as any Edward Hopper. This Delhi is more familiar to us than the Delhi of Instagram crammed with tombs, gardens and filtered sunset-selfies. Finally, an honest recreation with ho hum realities. This however isn’t a gallery, but
City Life – Peacock Sighting, Mausam Bhawan & Elsewhere Life by The Delhi Walla - May 11, 20230 In search of beauty. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Wow, this one’s costume more dazzling than even Rihanna’s oversized hooded camellia covered Valentino cape at the Met Galla red carpet. Conservation architect Ratish Nanda just spotted the super-stylish stunner trespassing outside his office window in Delhi’s picturesque Sunder Nursery. Strutting in such an exquisite golden-blue cape, each strand of the long train sparkling into a separate strand of light. The trespasser is a peacock, the cape is its long feathery tail shimmering under the noonday sun. Sunder Nursery is Jamna-paar from Mayur Vihar, which they say is in east Delhi. Mayur Vihar is actually the whole of Delhi, plus Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurugram. Because mayur, the peacock, is sighted in
City Food – “Hate Sherbet”, Somewhere in Delhi Food by The Delhi Walla - May 11, 20230 A drink with an odd name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The noon is white hot, and the tempting stall on the rutty pave is hawking more than one kind of cool summertime sherbet. The cloth banner behind gives two names: Mohabbat-e-Sherbet and—believe it or not—Nafrat-e-Sherbet. Mohabbat translates to love, nafrat is hate. This has to be the first-ever sighting of Nafrat (ki Sherbet) in the city. Though Mohabbat isn’t very old either—it majorly started popping up in the market alleys only some years back, soon spreading across the entire megapolis. In Ghaziabad, a Mohabbat stall stands at the Mohan Nagar crossing. In Gurugram, at least five Mohabbats are thriving in Sadar Bazar. A typical glass of Mohabbat consists of
Mission Delhi – Yaseen Salmani, Fasil Road Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - May 10, 20230 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi has the word ‘old’ married to it but is constantly being rejuvenated with the new. Three months back, young Vipin Pande arrived from Allahabad, got his life’s first job as a guard, after which he took up an apartment with three others in Galli Ganna Mishra. Similarly, six months ago, the middle-aged Yaseen Salmani made a start by arriving in Old Delhi. A “hajamat wala (barber)”, he is currently sharing a friend’s rented house near Delite Cinema. Things aren’t going easy for our new citizen, as he awaits customers at his street-side establishment, on Fasil Road, close to Delite. Perched idly on the customer’s
City Landmark – Pushkin’s Statue, Mandi House Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - May 8, 2023May 8, 20230 Pushkin in the time of war. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The poet’s long coat is unbuttoned, his thoughtful arms crossed on the back, his inward gaze turned towards the speeding autos. Only three poets adorn the baggy wide Delhi-NCR region, as public statue. Mirza Ghalib in Jamia Millia Islamia University, Subramania Bharati near Khan Market, and Alexander Pushkin, here in a corner of Mandi House traffic circle. Pushkin’s murti has been celebrated on these pages, but times have grown intensely hostile to the poet, bringing us back to him. These days the writer is reeling under a phenomenon called Pushkinopad, Pushkin-fall in Ukrainian. The people of Ukraine have been tearing down Pushkin’s statues across their cities and villages. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine