City Monument – Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum, Safdarjung Road

March 7, 2010 · by The Delhi Walla · in Monuments

Inside the Lutyens’ bungalow. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The former residence of India’s first female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, here she was assassinated by her own bodyguards in 1984. But this memorial is more than just a…

City Landmark – Khan-i-Khana’s Tomb, Nizamuddin East

January 28, 2010 · by The Delhi Walla · in Monuments

Scarred with beauty. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] A stone-paved lane hedged with marigold flowers leads to one of Delhi’s strangest monuments. The 16th century tomb of a Mughal noble, Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana, is both ugly and beautiful….

City Monument – Birla Temple, Mandir Marg

January 16, 2010 · by The Delhi Walla · in Faith, Landmarks, Monuments

The land of Vishnu. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Spread over seven acres, Shri Lakshmi Narain temple, popularly called Birla Mandir, is a dense neighbourhood of gods. A world in itself, it is a land of plenty. It…

City Secret – Razia Sultana’s Tomb, Pahari Bhojla

January 10, 2010 · by The Delhi Walla · in Landmarks, Monuments

India’s first woman ruler is sleeping here. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Razia Sultana’s tomb chamber in Old Delhi. No dome, no crowd here. This is no place for a queen. As the first woman ruler of the…

City Monument – Agrasen ki Baoli, Hailey Road

December 22, 2009 · by The Delhi Walla · in Monuments

The well of solitude. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Amid the business towers and residential apartments of the Colonial-era Connaught Place, this 14th century baoli or ancient step-well, is flanked on both sides by niches, chambers and passageways,…

City Monument – Ghalib’s Tomb Restoration, Nizamuddin Basti

November 26, 2009 · by The Delhi Walla · in Monuments

Restoring the dignity of Delhi’s greatest poet. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi By March, 2010, the 19th-century Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib will finally lie in a resting place worthy of his iconic status. “It will all be simple…

City Monument – Renovated Baoli, Nizamuddin Basti

April 3, 2009 · by The Delhi Walla · in Monuments

A 700-year-old monument gets its first full makeover. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] Add one more attraction in the historic Nizamuddin Basti, apart from its dargah and the famed Thursday qawwali sessions. The ancient baoli, or step-well, built…

The blogger is a devotee of Sufi Saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Author Arundhati Roy

The New Yorker on The Delhi Walla

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-delhi-wallas-visions-of-a-possibly-vanishing-india

“Soofi says that Proust is his favorite writer, and his project has, over the years, taken on an increasingly Proustian quality. He has been passing in and out of the same neighborhoods for more than a decade, documenting the minutest social and cultural changes… “–The New Yorker

The New Review, The Guardian, UK

“… Mayank Austen Soofi is street-spiritual as well as funny, engaging and wise.”

GQ India

With 2,748 posts (plus over 19,500 images on Instagram), it (The Delhi Walla) features the Delhi you should see, the Delhi that you never see, the Delhi that lies forgotten and sometimes even the Delhi that will come to be.

The Caravan

“The Delhi Walla is one of the city’s best-known flâneurs.”

Time Out Delhi

“The Delhi Walla is a one-man encyclopedia of the city.”

The Guardian

“The Delhi Walla is a celebration of the food, culture and books of India’s capital.”

Biography of The Delhi Walla

Since 2007, Mayank Austen Soofi has been collecting hundreds of stories taking place in Delhi, through writing and photography, for his acclaimed website The Delhi Walla. Every day, Mayank walks around the city with his camera and notebook to track down the part of extraordinary that exists in the seemingly mundane aspects of urban lives. By exploring and documenting the streets, buildings, houses, cuisines, traditions and people of Delhi, his work is also an attempt to give the megalopolis an intimate voice, and to capture the passing of time in this otherwise restlessly changing city.

Mayank is also a daily columnist for Hindustan Times newspaper, and the author of ‘Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District’ (published by Penguin) and the four-volume ‘The Delhi Walla’ guidebooks (HarperCollins).

Mayank Austen Soofi compulsively publishes texts and photos on his website, Facebook and Instagram. Follow him:

http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thedelhiwalla/
https://www.facebook.com/mayankaustensoofi

Write to mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com

Lonely Planet Discover India

“The Delhi Walla shows an offbeat view of Delhi.”

National Geographic Traveler

“The Delhi Walla is an excellent resource for ‘alternative’ Delhi.”

CNNGo

“The Delhi Walla spends his time in Delhi’s most obscure streets looking for endangered chaiwallahs making tea or other cultural touchstones.”

Author Khushwant Singh

“The Delhi Walla has the knack of bringing out the unusual from the usual, and presenting the city in a different light.”

The Rough Guide to Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra

“The Delhi Walla is an excellent Delhi website with news and views about the city.”

The Independent

“The Delhi Walla is the most compelling guide to India’s capital.”

DK Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Delhi

“The Delhi Walla is a great website for offbeat views of the city.”

The Wall Street Journal

“The Delhi Walla is one of the most insightful guides on life — and food — in India’s capital.”

Historian William Dalrymple

“The Delhi Walla is Delhi’s most idiosyncratic and eccentric website, and reflects a real love of this great but under-loved and underrated city.”

Mail Today

“Perhaps the most compelling and attractive Indian blog is The Delhi Walla blog run by Mayank Austen Soofi.”