Mayank Austen Soofi lives in a library in Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi.
On The Delhi Walla
The blogger is a devotee of Sufi Saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Author Arundhati Roy
The New Yorker on The Delhi Walla
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-delhi-wallas-visions-of-a-possibly-vanishing-india
“Soofi says that Proust is his favorite writer, and his project has, over the years, taken on an increasingly Proustian quality. He has been passing in and out of the same neighborhoods for more than a decade, documenting the minutest social and cultural changes… “–The New Yorker
The New Review, The Guardian, UK
“… Mayank Austen Soofi is street-spiritual as well as funny, engaging and wise.”
GQ India
With 2,748 posts (plus over 19,500 images on Instagram), it (The Delhi Walla) features the Delhi you should see, the Delhi that you never see, the Delhi that lies forgotten and sometimes even the Delhi that will come to be.
The Caravan
“The Delhi Walla is one of the city’s best-known flâneurs.”
Time Out Delhi
“The Delhi Walla is a one-man encyclopedia of the city.”
The Guardian
“The Delhi Walla is a celebration of the food, culture and books of India’s capital.”
Biography of The Delhi Walla
Since 2007, Mayank Austen Soofi has been collecting hundreds of stories taking place in Delhi, through writing and photography, for his acclaimed website The Delhi Walla. Every day, Mayank walks around the city with his camera and notebook to track down the part of extraordinary that exists in the seemingly mundane aspects of urban lives. By exploring and documenting the streets, buildings, houses, cuisines, traditions and people of Delhi, his work is also an attempt to give the megalopolis an intimate voice, and to capture the passing of time in this otherwise restlessly changing city.
Mayank is also a daily columnist for Hindustan Times newspaper, and the author of ‘Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District’ (published by Penguin) and the four-volume ‘The Delhi Walla’ guidebooks (HarperCollins).
Mayank Austen Soofi compulsively publishes texts and photos on his website, Facebook and Instagram. Follow him:
http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thedelhiwalla/
https://www.facebook.com/mayankaustensoofi
Write to mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com
Lonely Planet Discover India
“The Delhi Walla shows an offbeat view of Delhi.”
National Geographic Traveler
“The Delhi Walla is an excellent resource for ‘alternative’ Delhi.”
CNNGo
“The Delhi Walla spends his time in Delhi’s most obscure streets looking for endangered chaiwallahs making tea or other cultural touchstones.”
Author Khushwant Singh
“The Delhi Walla has the knack of bringing out the unusual from the usual, and presenting the city in a different light.”
The Rough Guide to Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra
“The Delhi Walla is an excellent Delhi website with news and views about the city.”
The Independent
“The Delhi Walla is the most compelling guide to India’s capital.”
DK Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Delhi
“The Delhi Walla is a great website for offbeat views of the city.”
The Wall Street Journal
“The Delhi Walla is one of the most insightful guides on life — and food — in India’s capital.”
Historian William Dalrymple
“The Delhi Walla is Delhi’s most idiosyncratic and eccentric website, and reflects a real love of this great but under-loved and underrated city.”
Mail Today
“Perhaps the most compelling and attractive Indian blog is The Delhi Walla blog run by Mayank Austen Soofi.”
Old Delhi
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Hi,
Nice Site.
Please let us know what you charge if someone wants to publish these photos on their blog or journal or online medium?
Please accept my good wishes for creating this photo website. Its a very good one.
Thanks
Vishal
Congratulations for your new domain!
P.S.
Most of us would’ve already deduced by now that you must be living out of a library and thy readership too soars cross border(s) wouldn’t it be nice to expand the ‘About’ column..
I’m pretty sure that your readers would like to know more about you
Impressive Work on Delhiwalla.
don’t you think that your site has a large space for improvement and it there is not much required information given on your site, well i think so that there is lots and lots of work to be done but this won’t be possible by one man army.
i would like to congratulate you on your very own domain and wish you luck for future. The content here is amazing., Wish you could have an RSS feed section so I could directly get the content on my google reader. I hope u work on it in future. I would love to see more about other sufi shrines in delhi. Thank you.
Hello Dear…..
Very Nice Website…….
U hv putting ur lot of efforts……
Regards:-
Akash Suri
Jammu
Great work! Love your efforts on the city! The young brigade will change the city we so love! Btw, somehow we get lost in the grandeur of Old Delhi but there is a city that lives right across the Yamuna which is shrouded in mysteries which gets lost in the heritage of Old Delhi and the persona of New Delhi. Ever thought of walking across the bridge.
Hi Mayank,
The way you notice and love Delhi, no one else will be able to .
Your work is amazing. Right from South Delhi to East Delhi people..to delhi roads.. food.. trees..monuments..fashion sense..behavior.. you have written about them all so accurately.
Just wanted to wish you luck and success, my fellow delhiwalla 🙂
Please let me know mail id of Arundhati Roy. Where does she live in Delhi. Your works are so impressive. Please have a separate section for eat outs. I am fed up searching for good reasonably priced food in Delhi.
Good Job!
Nice website, nice pictures!
Mayank, you are waltzing with talent, intelligence and brilliant expression. Keep dancing…
I hated the city as a kid…! Yes I did. But the pictures in history books and the stories of all those dynasties always ended up capturing my imagination. Today I am here and I can finally say, I love Delhi. I love it for its nooks and crannies and its broken, semi and totally damaged vestiges of the past.! I am bookmarking your blog and at the same time, I am thanking you for what you have created. Stay happy in your library!!
Been a lot of years since i’ve actually come across a good blog. In order to understand Delhi, you need to be a Delhi’ite and not a Delhi resident. Delhi has been widely used like a motel – come,earn,live and go back to native places when everything’s done. Lakhs of people come to this city everyday, most of them curse the city for various personal reason, and go back. Mr Soofi, you clearly show how a Delhi’ite is. Your views on all the different shades of life in Delhi, esp the Indian Coffee House is brilliant. I grew up listening to my dad’s adventures in his house at Sadar Thana Road, granddad’s work experiences there, and my mum’s experiences in Paharganj, Panchkuiyyan and Gol Dak Khana area, but could never visit there until recently(thanks to Delhi Metro, driving and parking there can be a headache presently). I read your articles(even used to when they used to appear in HT) and found them wonderful. You did cover up for me what i had been missing about the real Delhi. Too bad i don’t get much company for those lanes(except one guy, who’se from Daryaganj but lives in Gurgaon nowadays).
Right now, i put up in a part of Delhi that didn’t seem to exist some twenty years back(and who can believe its this place only where you get 4-5 km long jam all the way from Noida to CRRI). Delhi is a world in itself. To understand it, people need to see it from a cultural point, and you bring a platform for that. Keep up the good work.
Once again, thank you for showing what the city is. I’ve seen a lot of lunatics online criticising Delhi, and your blog does light up some hope in me. And for this, you’re going on my Blogroll !
Mayank, congratulations on a lovely site. It is well laid out and full of excellent content. Please add a tourism section where one may get a list of hidden gems like Agrasen Ki Baoli and the quickest way to get there. That would make your site a must see for every one.
This is a wonderful site. Please expand your “about me” column.
Nicely documented blog. Maybe you should write about momos. The ones which the momowalas call it ‘Special Momo’. Maybe I could help you with photographs too lol.
Just the sight I was searching for! Great idea! Came to Delhi in 1973 for studies. Moved around. Now retired with plenty of time to go to these places in Delhi.
Wonderful job done by you and your team! Congratulations!
Any help required, please let me know.
Hi..Could you please include me in your subscriber’s / followers list as my computer is technically not equipped to do that for me. Thanks
🙂
Really very engaging and made it a point to open your site at least once every day. Posts are lucid and amply describes the subject in a few words.
Mayank,
GREAT WORK!!!
kindly pass on your email address.
Would like ask some questions
about Delhi, could not think of a better person!
Many thanks
Gowri
शाबाश !! – Absolutely amazing. Wonderfully funny. Completely dilchasp. This site of yours is a must-come-back-to for every Dilli lover!
The site is amazing. Please expand your About section. And of course, thanks for everything.
Loved the site 🙂
Is there any way we can subscribe via email or Facebook for regular updates?
We are all Delhi lovers, we love Delhi. How each one of us visualize the city is different. You have captured Delhi as no one else can…candid photos… observing what is common and uncommon.
Hi
The website really brings out the true hidden colors of Delhi. I would be really glad if i could come along with you on these Delhi walks to explore the city better.
Hi Mayank! Your blog is simply fabulous. Your visit to my office on 24 Dec.14 and our subsequent discussion, a day before Christmas, now feels like a fairy Godmother’s visit to Cinderella…Hope you will come again…
Excellent n exception
Hi Mayank
I have gotten hooked to this site!.. Its a good piece of work.. Informative.. Light read.. Lovely coverage of a lot of things happening around.. Would like to see myself more here as a contributor..
Best wishes
Bindu
Your only reference to poverty in the city is a tragic photo of a unclothed little girl desperately begging for food, which you label as “poverty porn”. You are a disgusting person and have no conscience. Great cities are built on the equalities of its people and the cleanliness of its environment. Delhi has neither, yet you pander to a burgeoning aspirational middle class mindset of selfishness and greed. Life is not about stuffing your face with food or cheap bargains- it is about striving for making this world a better place for one and all.
Love the blog and would appreciate notification of new posts, thank you.
Very enjoyable blog.
Hello Delhi Walla! I am heading to India for a uni trip in a few weeks and have loved reading your blog. It is making me so excited! I’m a journalism student and will be writing stories while I’m in Delhi. I will be looking for chai wallas and I would really appreciate if you could direct me to where they are in Delhi 🙂
Thank you for sharing your beautiful words and photos.
–
This Blog is Delhi Encyclopedia! Loving it.
Thanks for fixing a window to Delhi’s fond people, food and happenings.
I want to be around, even for minute if it maybe, around Arundhati Roy. Even if I see her from far off, I just want to feel her presence.
How?
Hi Mayank – excellent work . I too love Delhi and spent many an ideal evening and weekends exploring and re-discovering the past .
Is there a way we too could contribute some of our discoveries ? I see many enthusiasts like myself and was wondering if we could organize walks together ? Also a good way to meet a like -minded bunch
Hi , I stumbled upon your intriguing pictures on Instagram . They are lovely . And you write beautifully .
Keep writing and keep inspiring .
Happy to read your thoughts .
Regards
Hargun .