City Hangout – Carom Clubs, Around Town
Players of the underbelly. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In the famous Premchand short story, Shatranj ke Khiladi, the chess players continued playing chess and lost the city of Lucknow to the Brits. Something similar is the story…
City Hangout – Music Cassette Shop, Madrasa Hussain Baksh Street
The pre-CD age. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] CDs… what’s that? The music-streaming millennials might ask. Even so, some of them might have had a firsthand memory of those discs, dating back to the early years of their…
City Hangout – Second Class Waiting Hall, Gurgaon Railway Station
Where time slows. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some places have a character so unique that the air feels saturated with a peculiar distinctness impossible to recreate elsewhere. They seem to exist outside the humdrum of the everyday…
City Hangout – Sunset Point, N-Block, Connaught Place
The idyllic evening spot. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi has a sometimes-fraught relationship with sunlight. Brief winters do transform the sun into welcome relief. But mostly it remains elusive because of smog. In the summertime, sunlight is,…
City Hangout – Apna Bazar, Gurgaon
The market with a mouthful of sky. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Let’s be clear about this. Apna Bazar in Gurgaon, in the Greater Delhi Region, is snuggled into a building that’s seen better days. Even so. The…
City Hangout – Chairs, Sunder Nursery Park
Stuff for memories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sprawling Sunder Nursery Park is not only renowned for centuries-old edifices and expansive grassy grounds. This heritage landmark is now beginning to be known for something unusual in a…
City Hangout – Park Above Palika Bazar, Connaught Place
Springtime pleasures. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sky is blue and puffed up with white clouds, the grass is lightly wet and people are looking less stressed. Delhi’s strangest and shortest season—from February to March—has begun. Neither…
City Hangout – Ridge Watching, Between Dhaula Kuan and Delhi Aerocity
Into the forest. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Not everybody strongly senses the presence of that amazing rocky jungle running through the very heart of Delhi. Known as the “Ridge”, it’s a part of the ancient Aravalli mountain…
City Hangout – Poetry Reading Benches, Mirza Ghalib’s Tomb
Place for poems. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Those good souls who love reading poems will sit down with a poetry anthology just about anywhere. Even while standing in a jam-packed Metro train. But where can one find…
City Hangout – Shatabdi Watching, New Delhi Railway Station
The thrill of travel. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] That powerful sense of “going somewhere” is probably more palpable in a railway station than at an airport terminal. So many of us harassed Delhiites dream of escaping this…
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