City Obituary – Haji Faiyazuddin, Old Delhi
Life of a gentleman. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If you were to visit him after a prolonged period, he would frown at you with stern eyes, but his face would instantly dissolve into a welcoming smile. Haji…
City Life – Veeru Bhai’s Self-Made Cart, Central Delhi
Life of the cart. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Carts are regular sights in this city of street hawkers. Usually they are but a broad plank of wood plonked over four wheels. But Veeru Bhai’s fruit cart—or thela,…
City Life – Two Painters, Kamala Nehru Park
On life and its disappointments. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is late morning and Manoj and Ravi are sitting in a city garden. The Kamala Nehru Park, tucked next to Gurgaon’s Roshanpura in the Greater Delhi Region,…
City Life – Ramrati in the Pandemic, Connaught Place
The living landmark returns. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here she is. “I came back one or one-and-a-half months ago.” For years, Ramrati’s morning routine stayed the same: reading aloud passages from the sacred Ramcharitmanas, her upper-half rocking…
City Life – Fire-Side Memoirs, Roshan Pura
Finding old times. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is a cold late afternoon. Four labourers are sitting around a makeshift fire they have lit up from a pile of wooden planks. Two of them are in their…
City Obituary – Suhana Begum, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
Life of a woman. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Her arms were covered with bangles, her ears decked with shiny stones, and stones were adorning her fingers too. She could be heard approaching from a distance, because of…
City Life – Gardeners’ Dreams, Sector 15, Gurgaon
Family of a couple. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was decided some years ago: Mangal and his wife, Reena, will continue with their jobs until the career of their children are shaped — at least. “That is…
City Life – Downton Abbey Civilisation, Sunder Nursery
The world of the super-rich. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Seen Downton Abbey, the series on an aristocratic family and their servants, in 19th century England? Who would have imagined that it would take a historical necropolis to…
City Life – Bhag Bahri Malhotra’s Nehru Park Connection, Safdarjang Enclave
A routine of 40 years. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Pathways go up and down the many slopes. Distractions include flowers and fountains, lovers and joggers, chai wallas and chips sellers. Nehru Park runs along a tiny patch of the Aravali…
City Life – Tailor Nathuram Ahuja, Ram Nagar
Life in the pandemic. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His routine stayed the same for more than 50 years. Every day he would be in his tailoring shop, working with the fabrics, the sewing machine, the inch tape…
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