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…
Delhi Proustians – My Life with Marcel and the Unjustness of Proust’s Great-Grand-Niece
Consider the Proustians. [Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; photos by friends] This is personal. French novelist Marcel Proust’s personal archives is to be auctioned by Soethby in Paris. They are being sold by his great-grand-niece. Here’s the news from AFP,…
Delhi Proustians – A Journey to Marcel Proust’s Balbec, France
A day’s outing into Lost Time. [Text and photos by Florian Morin] If you take as a starting point the Saint-Michel Church, and from there walk north on the Avenue de la Mer, then you will pass all kinds of…
Delhi Proustians – First Meeting With Marcel, Venice
First day, first show. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Very soon, his life will revolve around a single object—a book with 2,058 pages. And if in this world of million distractions he manages to read even five pages…
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