Mission Delhi – Neera Chopra, Rajpur Road
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Every morning she gets up at five, walks into the dining room, opens the door outside to the porch, and there “I look at my…
City Nature – Amaltas in 2024 Bloom, Around Town
Summer’s gift [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] By yellow-and-green autos speeding along the Mathura Road, the heat-stricken citizen is walking wearily, past a deserted bus stop, past a woman selling bottled water, past a… here it is, right…
City Obituary – Shree Kumari Pandey, Gurgaon
”Jagat mummy” [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world is the size of each person’s head. An entire universe has been lost with her passing. Shree Kumari Pandey died on Thursday, aged 97. She is survived by US-based…
City Food – Roller Wali Ice-Cream, Somewhere in Delhi
A rare summer treat [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sniff it, this strange vision in pink. The cool intense fragrances rushing out of it hint to apple and mango and possibly kiwi. This is actually fresh ice, infused…
City Landmark – Tile Art, Pedestrian Subway, Outer Ring Road
Tiles in the city [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Taak, a niche on the wall, is a disappearing element of Delhi’s architecture. Maybe because suburban flats no longer have walls thick enough to afford taak. But here’s a…
City Landmark – Hazrat Amir Khusrau’s 720th Urs, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah
A poet-saint’s anniversary [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] As monuments go by, it is not instantly striking. But it is cloaked in rich layers of histories. In the beginning, it was just a marble grave and remained so…
City Neighbourhood – Laddu Ghati, Paharganj
The laddu valley [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Lady with a dog. Gentleman with a chai kettle. A temple. A peepal tree as immense as Kipling’s jungle. A water pyau. And manning the entry of this introverted world…
City Life – Syed Nabi Ahmed‘s Telephone, Old Delhi
Life with a device. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Time passes. Call tunes change. For a long time a black rotary dial telephone graced exorcist Syed Nabi Ahmed’s chamber, here in in Old Delhi. He then replaced it…
City Food – Five Spots, Gurugram’s Sadar Bazar
5-star culinary tour. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Food tours in Old Delhi—nice, but now such a cliche! Do a food tour in old Gurugram, for a change, especially in Sadar Bazar. And be sure to stop by…
City Landmark – Sahibabad RRTS Station, Ghaziabad
Learning to see a new landmark. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It looks like an ocean liner stranded in plain land, far from the sea it belongs to. This is a fairly new landmark in zila Ghaziabad, that…
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