Atget’s Corner – 816-820, Delhi Photos

Atget’s Corner – 816-820, 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,…

Guest Column – Prisoners' Poems, Tihar Jail & DLF Promenade Mall

Guest Column – Prisoners’ Poems, Tihar Jail & DLF Promenade Mall

Poetry with plants. [By Soumya Mukerji; photos by Tihar Jail] Today (5 June) is World Environment Day. About 20,000 living-breathing saplings in recycled glass planters wait to be adopted, for free, at the DLF Promenade Mall in Vasant Kunj on…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Kritika Gupta, Noida

The 76th death. [Text by Kritika Gupta; photo by Ramanjit Kaur] As she lay there wrapped in her blanket with a book in her hands, the world didn’t realize when she slipped from the world of living to the world…

Netherfield Ball – Amitav Ghosh’s Book Launch, India Habitat Center

Netherfield Ball – Amitav Ghosh’s Book Launch, India Habitat Center

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] That athletic elderly man in shorts was the hippest man in the crowd. He arrived alone, stayed by himself and looked meditative with a pair of white headphones slung around…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Chaitanya Carlos Kaushik, Delhi High Court

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Chaitanya Carlos Kaushik, Delhi High Court

The 75th death. [Text by Chaitanya Carlos Kaushik; photo by Tribikran Meelee] Chaitanya Carlos Kaushik, 26, died. The end came at two in the afternoon as he stood in the lobby of the Delhi High Court. Mr Kaushik was seen…

Atget’s Corner – 811-815, Delhi Photos

Atget’s Corner – 811-815, 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,…

City Season - The Sulky Amaltas Trees, Hailey Road

City Season – The Sulky Amaltas Trees, Hailey Road

The summer disappointment. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is a most unusual summer. There is only a little yellow here, and that too pale. The Delhi Walla is walking on central Delhi’s Hailey Road, an avenue lined…

City Life - Rain Basera, Chandni Chowk

City Life – Rain Basera, Chandni Chowk

The home for the homeless [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An abode that comes alive when birds return to their nests—this is the poetic imagery that the term rain basera evokes in an online dictionary. To the prosaic,…

Letter from Paris - The Reluctant Proustian, Marais

Letter from Paris – The Reluctant Proustian, Marais

Proust’s reader in Proust’s city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is a man of another time. On streets, he is shocked to see women with cigarettes. At home, he paints, and plays piano and cello. In drawing…

City Hangout - Second-hand Books of Paharganj, Central Delhi

City Hangout – Second-hand Books of Paharganj, Central Delhi

Finding thrill in unexpected places. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some go to Paharganj, the backpackers’ ghetto in central Delhi, to have emergency love with lonely foreigners. The Delhi Walla goes for novels they leave behind in the…