Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – SM Shafi, New Friends Colony
The parlour confession. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Literature student SM Shafi eats poetry — poetically speaking. He reads poems, he writes poems. In his 20s, he is currently preparing to start his PhD on poet Fakir Mohan…
Mission Delhi – Gauri Mohan Gupta, Sushant Lok
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Many book-loving Delhi homes have Shakespeare, Tagore, Tolstoy and Ghalib. French author Marcel Proust is more difficult to spot, though his novel is counted among…
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Namit Arora, DLF Phase 3
The parlour confession. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Namit Arora is into reading, writing, travelling—so much so that he and his partner gave up their corporate career in California to travel and write about India, where they took…
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Dhruv Sangari-Bilal Chishty, Jangpura
The parlour confession. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is special. Not only for being an acclaimed Sufi musician but because he is our living link to the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Dhruv Sangari-Bilal Chishty trained under…
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Arjun Sagar Gupta, Vasant Vihar
The parlour confession. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] His bedroom’s Yamaha Electone is clamouring for attention, even on Zoom. The statelier Steinway is in the drawing room, out of sight. An accomplished pianist, the enterprising Arjun Sagar Gupta,…
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Sushma Seth, New Friends Colony
The parlour confession. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She’s 85 and so elegant, stately, regal and her white hair is so beautiful—even on the phone screen. Actor Sushma Seth is chatting on WhatsApp video from the home in…
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Iffat Zarrin, Galli Hakimji Wali
The parlour confession. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The works of poets may linger in some high unattainable altitude but they themselves live in ordinary unremarkable streets. Such as Iffat Zarrin. This muggy afternoon the verse writer is…
The Delhi Proustians – Life With Marcel in Bahrisons Booksellers & Vasant Vihar
Living with Proust. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She lifts the small white envelope from inside the table drawer, carefully takes out the fragile piece of paper within, and unfolds it carefully with a tweezer. It is merely…
Photo Essay – Stealing a Letter and Doing Pushups at Marcel Proust’s Tomb, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
After Proust. [Photos by a Friend of Marcel Proust; text by Mayank Austen Soofi] Suddenly, MARCEL PROUST. His tomb. The Delhi Walla is at Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris. I have come to see Proust, the author of In Search of…
The Delhi Proustians – Benoît Puttemans of Sotheby’s Paris Talks to The Delhi Walla on the Great Proust Auction
On Sotheby’s auction of Proust memorabilia. [By Mayank Austen Soofi; photo given by Sotheby’s / art digital studio] Imagine that your lover’s most intimate letters and private photographs are sold away. This is probably what the most devoted readers of…
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