City Life – Pollution Postcard, 2023 Delhi
Prose and poem on the Delhi smog. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The mourning (sorry, morning!) sky is sandstorm yellow, so is the earth and everything between the sky and earth, though no storm is brewing. The distant…
City Hangout – India Habitat Center Architecture, Lodhi Road
So Stein. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Head to the tranquil atrium at the India Habitat Centre (IHC). Enter through gate 2. Make sure you reach around 10.15am, when the morning shift staffers are sprucing up the courtyard…
City Hangout – Blue Chai, Kale Tea Stall
The street of the tailor’s needle. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Winter in, blue out. Neela aasman kho gaya—the blue sky is lost. Soon the air above Delhi will be all grey, dusty, smoggy, cold. Indeed, in our…
Mission Delhi – Monu, Somewhere in Delhi
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This sight, so rare. A citizen not holding the customary mobile, but a book. Monu is reading, while awaiting his rickshaw’s next customer. So it…
Mission Delhi – Joginder, Barakhamba
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is Sunday. There is no traffic, the road lined with high-rises is empty. Its gaping emptiness augments the awe of the megapolis. Amid such…
City Walk – Gali Sui Walan, Old Delhi
The street of the tailor’s needle. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Thickness of a hair; tiny opening at one end. It is the sui, the tailor’s needle, and this barely tangible thing lends its name to this super-bustling…
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Aarti Talwar, Somewhere in Delhi
The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Besides having a day-job in the corporate world, Aarti Talwar is the co-founder of The Dandelion Collective, a book club that completes a year this October. She agreed to become a part of…
City Obituary – The Book Shop, Jor Bagh Market
Passing of a place. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Miles Davis’s moody music fills the room. An elegant woman is sitting, surrounded by books. The rest is silence and sakoon. This was an evening scene from some years…
City Season – Floss Silk Flowers, Around Town
Season’s shade. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Blue is marrying into green, and green is marrying into pink. Here, near Humayun’s tomb. The blue constitutes the dome of the centuries-old Neela Gumbad; the green is the lush foliage…
City Food – Black Halwa, Ballimaran
A dessert changes its name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is one of Old Delhi’s most iconic desserts, but Its name is a racist slur, the Hindustani equivalent of the N-word. And now the owner of an…
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