City Landmark – Accordion Man, South Extension I
His silent music. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sitting with legs crossed, head tilted, moustache neatly trimmed and twirled, smiling beatifically, he is playing his accordion, the bellows of the instrument fanned out to their utmost extremity. No…
City Landmark – Empty Field, Ghaziabad
Space in suburbia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Something serving as a relief from what is usual—this is a more evocative dictionary meaning of ‘oasis.’ Technically, the word refers to “a green area in desert.” Zila Ghaziabad is…
City Landmark – New Wall Clock, Turkman Gate
Timeless gets new time. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The lush banyan tree stands by the old marble grave. High up in the smoggy air, the leafy branches bend over the chaotic street, keeping it marooned in perpetual…
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 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…
City Landmark – Chicken Corner & Maktaba Bookstore, Urdu Bazar
Story of bookstores. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Chicken Corner. Is that what the great bookstore has become? No disrespect to the pavement eatery, but it is right outside the bookstore, blocking the access to the shuttered front…
City Landmark – Shah Music Centre, Netaji Subhash Road
For the record. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Gone. Shah Music Centre had hundreds of LPs. Those ‘Long Play’ discs storing half hour of music, before needing to be turned over, have long been out of use, but…
City Landmark – Promenade Books, Hauz Khas Village
Life in the village. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Outside, Jack Kerouac’s poster is staring from the glass wall. Inside, black shelves are stacked with Nietzsche, Hunter S. Thompson, William S. Burroughs, etc. Delhi’s newest bookstore opened ten…
City Landmark – Anwar’s Shaving Salon, Near Gole Market
Hajamat arbour. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Found. A serene impressionistic haven to get a haircut—or a hajamat (shave) if you will. Anwar’s pavement stall beside central Delhi’s Gole Market is austere. Some might though label it among…
Recent Comments