Delhi's greatest qawwal. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This winter marks the fifth death anniversary of Meraj Ahmed Nizami, the great qawwal of the sufi shrine of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The news of Meraj’s passing had gone unrecorded. Now, in this season of losses, one may as well commemorate the loss of one of the most accomplished, if little-known, figures of contemporary Delhi. As the elderly patriarch of Nizami Khusro Bandhu family, Meraj was among a very few classical qawwals left in India. He rendered Persian sufi verses most fluently in the old tarz, or melodies. This frail erudite supremely elegant man lived most modestly, in a one-room house near the aforementioned 14th century shrine. Meraj’s grandfather’s grandfather was the “shahi gawayya

A roadside with stories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sidewalk is as wide as a bazaar lane and a paved one at that. But it’s stinking of urine. And yet you ought to come here. Because this pavement in Gurgaon’s IFFCO Chowk starkly depicts the hard realities of a Delhi suburb that wants to be known as the Millennium City (and as the Futuristic City). Of course, no Gurgaon dweller can avoid her city’s bitter truth. Even the most privileged citizen living in the plushest towers (with helipads) must have experienced rainy-day traffic jams. But here you have the opportunity to mull over the deformities and disappointments of the city a tad aesthetically. For this is a very special place. It

Handmade chairs. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Do you know who has made the seat of the chair on which you are sitting? A man or a woman, certainly, but this might be true only up to a point. After all, these days most things come out of factories and your chair might very well be the result of industrial mass production. One afternoon, however, The Delhi Walla comes across a rare sight. Two men are weaving chair seats with their own hands. Naval Singh and Vijay Kumar are at work. The open-air setting is literature-friendly. We are next to Leo Tolstoy's statue in Central Delhi's Janpath. The arms of these two men are moving in their own respective harmonies--they must have

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 The Delhi Walla witnessed the city’s famed table manners. There was a long queue of people leading to the bhandara. They were mostly men. The meal was being served on white Styrofoam plates. The diners were enjoying their meals al-fresco—right there on the pavement. Some were eating alone, others were in groups. It looked like a buffet party scene. Most people were throwing away the used plates as well as the plastic water glasses on the lane itself. The organizers had

Daughter Mala Dayal breaks her silence. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Please Do Not Ring The Bell Unless You Are Expected - This is the notice that continues to greet the visitors outside author Khushwant Singh's home although he died in March 2014. As one of the most influential men in the capital, Mr Singh's drawing room court was considered exclusive. Delhi's powerful society figures would spare no effort to be a part of it (I have written about the drawing room here). More than a year after his death, Mr Singh's daughter, Mala Dayal, breaks her silence and gets brutally frank about her father’s famous soirées. She believes that in later years in particular, her father, who died at

RV Smith, Sadia Dehlvi and Rakhshanda Jalil. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is to be a rare evening. Three great living chroniclers of Delhi will come together on stage to chat about their lives in the capital. It is true that authors RV Smith, Sadia Dehlvi and Rakhshanda Jalil often hang out together in the privacy of their drawing rooms to gossip about the city and its famous inhabitants. But it’s probably the first time that they would do the same in front of people. To celebrate the publication of Mr Smith’s book, Delhi: Unknown Tales of a City, the three authors will stage a conversation deliciously titled ‘Dilli Ke Teen Yaar’ (‘The three friends of Delhi’). “We will

The philosophy of nonsense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A rainbow. The Delhi Walla saw this poster on the high-security wall of the British Council on Kasturba Gandhi Marg. It showed the slogan ‘Love is great’. This is the eleventh instance that I have come face-to-face with De Bhasar movement in Delhi. (Click here to view the first exhibit.) According to Wikipedia, De Bhasar or Bhasarism is a cultural movement that began in Nantes, France, during the post 9/11 Gulf War, reaching a tipping point between 2007 to 2009. The movement involves graphic designs and literature, which concentrates its anti-sentimental politics by rejecting aesthetic birth-control measures through anti-catholic works. De Bhasar might be regarded as pro-Berlusconi in nature. Describing the 'Love is great' rainbow

Urination is prohibited. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The two men were urinating against the monumental backdrop of India Gate. One of them, a photographer who refused to give his name, was defiant: “I take pictures of tourists. I had an emergency and the toilet is far from here and I cannot lose customers… so I’m doing it here.” It was only a few days ago that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India drive from Rajpath, against the backdrop of India Gate. The New Delhi Municipal Council did its bit by plastering dozens of posters around the traffic circle, headlined “Papa!! Ho Ho, Shame, Shame! You are urinating in public!” The next day, a

An interview with the author-essayist. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] "Arundhati (Roy) is my friend. She's a good writer. But I don't take her comments seriously. She once described the Naxalites as 'Gandhians with Guns'. Let's see if she'll change her opinion on Gandhi or not" - so said India's most admired political psychologist and social theorist Ashis Nandy in response to The Doctor and the Saint, Ms Roy's essay on caste that also dwelt on Gandhiji's attitude towards this system. The essay has prompted many other public intellectuals to cast doubts on Ms Roy's ability to discuss caste, Mahatma Gandhi and related subjects. The Delhi-based author confronted these questions in an interview to Malayala Manorama, a publication from her home-state of