City Culture – Delhi’s Table Manners, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
Dining rituals. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The delicious food was being served free to passers-by in honor of goddess Mata Rani. The road-side bhandara counter had large cauldrons filled with aloo subzi and deep-fried pooris. One afternoon…
City Monument – The Oberoi, Zakir Hussain Marg
The old hotel. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is no furniture in the lobby. The rooms are vacant. The Oberoi looks abandoned. Its security staff prohibits people from taking photographs of the building even from outside. The…
City Moment – Father to Son, Turkman Gate Bazaar
The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The father is at work. The little son is playing in an adjoining alley. One morning The Delhi Walla sees the man and his boy in Delhi’s Turkman Gate Bazaar….
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Rajeev Roark, The Coffee Lab
The 120th death. [Text by Rajeev Roark; photo by Abhinav Chandel] Many things can and are being said about Rajeev Roark. The epithets rain in place of the much needed clouds in the much too dry Lutyens’ Delhi. Oddly missing…
City Library – Barbara Del Mercato’s Books, Venice
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake, wrote poet Wallace Stevens. And if the lake is too far, step into the poetic world of Steven’s ardent devotee…
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Simran Brar, Vasant Kunj
The 119th death. [Text and photo by Simran Brar; the picture selfie shows the author with her grandmother] The hazardous cocktail of unabashed laughter, untiring idiocy and boundless adventure took Simran Brar’s life one unremarkable April morning. She had been…
City Landmark – Faqir Chand and Sons, Khan Market
Not just another bookshop. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Historian Romila Thapar has visited this old family run bookshop in Khan Market. Author Gita Mehta talked of it in her book Snakes And Ladders: Glimpses Of Modern India….
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Ajin K Thomas, Malappuram, Kerala
The 118th death. [Text by Ajin K Thomas; photo by Shebin Benson] Writer Ajin K Thomas was found dead on the banks of the Punnapuzha River in Malappuram, with a paperback edition of The God of Small Things lying on…
Atget’s Corner – 911-915, Delhi Photos
The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds,…
Julia Child in Delhi – Sakina Mehta Makes Bohra Biryani, Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I
The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of South Delhi’s Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I. In her mid-80s, Sakina Mehta finds happiness in listening to birdsongs. She divides her time between…
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