City Hangout – Modern Tea Stall, Haveli Azam Khan Street
The place after the pandemic. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi’s tea stalls make very milky and sweet chai. The venerable Modern Tea Stall with its not-so-modern wooden chairs and chipped china is different. Its tea is…
City Hangout – Yasin Plaza, Sadar Bazaar, Gurgaon
The joys of signage art. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here’s a delicious assault of the shop signages. New Fashion House has “parde hi parde,” boasting a great choice of curtains. Sudhiksha Beauty Parlour also happens to be…
City Hangout – Joseph Stein’s Magical Terrace, Triveni Kala Sangam
The architecture of shadows. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Look carefully. The building is changing with the progress of the day. The roof expands as the sun moves. You feel its gradual shifting. The outer edges seem to…
City Hangout – Bougainvillea Aesthetics, Barakhamba Road
Beauty spots [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It takes a bougainvillea to raise a city. That’s what one feels on witnessing the magical scene of a Connaught Place high-rise emanating from the flower pot of a pink bougainvillea….
City Hangout – Pandemic-Era Paharganj, Central Delhi
A place without its soul. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sapna means dream and now, indeed, it seems just like a dream. It is Monday noon and the shutters of the Sapna Travel are down. Some steps ahead…
City Hangout – Garden of Spring, Vasant Vihar
The park of poets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The carefree man in blue track suit is sprawled on the grass, his eyes closed in deep sleep, and his bare feet entangled amid dry leaves and white frangipanis…
City Hangout – Pandemic-Era Symbols, Chatta Sheikh Mangloo
Signs of the times. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In one famous scene of the Arabian Nights, a thief paints a mark on Ali Baba’s door so that his companions can later come and put him to death….
City Hangout – Stranded Boat, Hauz Khas Lake
A melancholy setting. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One way to experience a beautiful poem is to find it in some book. Another way is to encounter it in a tangible material form in this three dimensional world….
City Hangout – Love Song Crooners, Lodhi Garden
Music in twilight. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Can you hear? Here comes one of these songs again. The ones about love and heartbreak. The singer’s voice is tinged with ache and is getting shriller with the heightened…
City Hangout – Shidipura Graveyard, Near Filmistan Cinema
A lonely planet. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world is so much at turbulence. But here, all is at peace. Which isn’t surprising for this is a graveyard. Shidipura Qabristan, near Filmistan Cinema in central Delhi, isn’t…
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