City Home - House for Four, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

City Home – House for Four, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

Home sweet home. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The small cooking gas cylinder is limply hanging down the wall, as casually as a cotton gamcha from a wardrobe hook. A chequered gamcha is hung similarly, in fact. There’s…

City Home - Roommates in Ruin, Galli Chooriwallan

City Home – Roommates in Ruin, Galli Chooriwallan

Roomies, a portrait. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] So dark, so musty. It’s like a cave. As the eyes adjust to the dimness, this mysterious world exudes even more mystery. The jagged walls—unpainted, bare— are of long-ago lakhori….

City Home - Irshad's Residence, Near GB Pant Hospital

City Home – Irshad’s Residence, Near GB Pant Hospital

Home sweet home [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here, the white cord of a mobile phone charger. There, a blue-rimmed handheld mirror. On a hook, two jackets. On the floor, a blanket. This room is an entire house,…

City Home - Saira Bano & Family, Gali Chandi Wali

City Home – Saira Bano & Family, Gali Chandi Wali

Home sweet home [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An entire household is contained in this room. This household contains a life that has largely disappeared. The second floor apartment in Old Delhi’s Gali Chandi Wali houses a family…

City Home - Fareed Mirza, Bazar Shah Abul Khair Marg

City Home – Fareed Mirza, Bazar Shah Abul Khair Marg

Old home glossary. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Suburb-like flats are taking over Old Delhi’s traditional makaan, or houses. Here’s a glossary of domestic spaces soon to be lost to legends. This afternoon, building material merchant Fareed Mirza…

Delhi Homes - Barsati, Around Town

Delhi Homes – Barsati, Around Town

The vanishing rain shelter. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is raining hard on the terrace of an 18th floor flat in Gurgaon’s Golf Course Road. Monsoon is giddily beating down on this multitude of high-rises. Yet, it…

City Home - Ruined Bungalow, Somewhere in Delhi

City Home – Ruined Bungalow, Somewhere in Delhi

A deserted home. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The metal gate is splotched with red dots of rust. The pane-less windows on the first floor stare out like open wounds. Cobwebs are hanging from window grills. It is…

City Homes - Dayanita Singh's Book Walls, Vasant Vihar

City Homes – Dayanita Singh’s Book Walls, Vasant Vihar

Inside an artist’s studio. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dayanita Singh lives amid moving walls of her books. This afternoon, at her second floor studio in Vasant Vihar, the artist appears by sliding away one of the walls….

Home Sweet Home - Tailor “Master” Javed Iqbal's Dwelling, Chitli Qabar Chowk

Home Sweet Home – Tailor “Master” Javed Iqbal’s Dwelling, Chitli Qabar Chowk

A new house. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The mattress is spread across the floor. The cooking gas cylinder is in the kitchen, already connected to the double-burner gas range. Two plastic buckets are in the bathroom. All…

Home Sweet Home - Abida's Dwelling, Under Oberoi Hotel Flyover

Home Sweet Home – Abida’s Dwelling, Under Oberoi Hotel Flyover

A woman’s house. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The evening is mildly cold. Abida and Raja are at home, sitting by the fireside. Raja has their month-old son, Piraili, on his lap. Wrapped in layers of woollens, the…