City Walk - Chhatta Shaikh Mangloo, Old Delhi

City Walk – Chhatta Shaikh Mangloo, Old Delhi

Life of a lane. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It flows like a nadi from under the shadow of the Jama Masjid. But a citizen walking on the street won’t see anything of the grand mosque. Flanked by…

City Hangout - Meraj Guest House, Ballimaran

City Hangout – Meraj Guest House, Ballimaran

An extraordinary lodging. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The staircase is ordinary. So is the ensuing corridor. Ditto the tiny reception. The best room is basic, a double bed with white sheets. No AC. Even so, this is…

City Hangout - Masjid Udayan, Gurgaon

City Hangout – Masjid Udayan, Gurgaon

Let us praise unremarkable places. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Picturesque places thrill the senses. Please also give a chance to plain places. Hosting scenes of unremarkable everyday life, they too can make a deep impact. Such is…

City Hangout - Dining Hall, India International Center Annexe

City Hangout – Dining Hall, India International Center Annexe

The lesser-known IIC. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The rainy day’s subdued light deftly streams through the misty windows, filling up the interiors with a diffused illumination. While the framed artworks on the walls glisten with the reflection…

City Hangout - Forgotten Graveyard, Mathura Road

City Hangout – Forgotten Graveyard, Mathura Road

Lost cemetery. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Could it be the rains? The sprawling ground is choked with weedy grass and unknown plants, so tall and numerous that their tips prick the chin. Wading through is fearful. What…

City Hangout - July Cloud Watching, Around Town

City Hangout – July Cloud Watching, Around Town

The pleasure of merely circulating. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Full of the pomp and stateliness of emeritus professors, they are broodily sauntering about the empty space, indulging in the rarefied pleasures of merely circulating. These clouds of…

City Life - Green Benches, Lodhi Garden

City Life – Green Benches, Lodhi Garden

A readers’ collective. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Not many might register their absence if they were to suddenly disappear from the park. So many of us anyway prefer to lie on the park’s cool grass. Even so,…

City Life - "Lodhi Reads", Lodhi Garden

City Life – “Lodhi Reads”, Lodhi Garden

A readers’ collective. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A woman in hat is reading a Mahasweta Devi paperback, with the centuries-old Bada Gumbad monument as her backdrop. So far, so ordinary. Reading in park is a regular Lodhi…

City Hangout - Best Monsoon View, Gurgaon

City Hangout – Best Monsoon View, Gurgaon

Rainy season’s purple prose. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Can anyone get tired of seeing the monsoon from the same place again and again, if the view happens to be among the most beautiful in the entire Delhi…

City Hangout - Deer Park, Hauz Khas

City Hangout – Deer Park, Hauz Khas

An iconic park’s profound alteration. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It will soon be a civilisation gone with the wind. The iconic Deer Park in Delhi’s Hauz Khas is set to completely turn around its character. The number…