Mission Delhi – Jaisul, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - February 17, 2025February 17, 20251 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This time the Delhi winter passed in a jiffy. Jaisul is relieved about the season’s premature passing. He’s a rickshaw puller, he explains, and his business always plummets during the winter. Even so, he made a good use of the cold weeks, he says. He did so by boarding the Seemanchal Express for his Bihar village in janpad Araria. He came back a week ago. “I hadn’t visited my family for almost a year,” he says after dropping off a customer one late night in a central Delhi colony. “Two months ago, when my eldest son called me on mobile, saying, ‘Papa, ab aa jao,’ I went
Mission Delhi – Sunita, Sitaram Bazar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - February 4, 20250 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Her life is hectic. She gets up early in the morning, prepares the household for the new day. Then she marches out to relaunch herself as a hyperlocal entrepreneur. Sunita administers a paratha establishment, close to her home. Her stall in Old Delhi’s Sitaram Bazar consists of a simple cart. This early afternoon, the cart is crowded with a two-burner gas range, a couple of metal pans—one is filled with spiced aloo mash (paratha stuffing!), the other pan is covered with a lid. A platter is filled with kneaded atta. A plastic box is crammed with sliced onions and hari mirchi pickle. Then there’s the chakla-belan
Mission Delhi – Gulzar, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 24, 20251 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sky this cold morning is pitch blue. The young boy is walking with a man in white kurta pajamas, here on a central Delhi roadside. The man has a bushy white beard, his eyes are hidden behind thick black glasses, and he is walking hesitantly along the rough path, each step an act of deliberation. The boy is walking faster, but stops after every few moments for the man to catch up with him. At times, he walks back to the man, holds his hand, and silently escorts him forward. Soon they enter an underground subway, slowly walking down the dusty stairs littered with cigarette
Mission Delhi – Shanti Devi, Indirapuram Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 23, 20250 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] We all start by being young. If we are lucky enough to live long, then at some point in our life, strangers on the streets start to address us as “uncle” or “aunty.” The ruder among these strangers might even call us “bhudda” or “bhudiya.” And here in zila Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram Sector 2, a roadside eatery calls itself Budhiya Dhaba. The modest establishment is administered by a… well, the woman says she is the “budhiya” of Budhiya Dhaba. The friendly lady is as endearing as an affectionate relative one might meet in a family wedding. She actually goes by the name of Shanti Devi. Shrugging at the unusual
Mission Delhi – Aamir, Chelmsford Road Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 2, 20250 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The woman was walking along the lane, carrying a large bouquet of multi-coloured flowers. Her right hand was holding the flowers somewhat carelessly; the bouquet was facing downwards. The other hand had the mobile phone, glued to the ear. The flowers were frequently falling down on the pave, one or two at a time. After the woman disappeared from sight, young Aamir picked up each of the flowers from the ground. This was the only eventful part of his afternoon, in Aamir’s telling, here on central Delhi’s Chelmsford Road. He then used those second-hand flowers to decorate his rickshaw. The rickshaw is parked on the curb, as
Mission Delhi – Anand, Chawri Bazar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 26, 2024December 26, 20240 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] His cheeks are wet. These are tears, he says, rubbing his left eye. A series of questions elicit the following responses from citizen Anand. “On ekattis (31) December, I will turn paisath (65). “I’m already old, I’m now about to step into an even older age. My life will become more unbearable. My body will feel more pain. The ageing limbs already give me so much pain." “Being a labourer, I carry goods from one place to another for a Chawri Bazar dukandar (shopkeeper). I have to carry nug ka samaan on my head. The body finds it increasingly tough to withstand so much load, but I cannot afford to
Mission Delhi – Shanti Devi, Hauz Khas Village Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 21, 20241 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] She would talk to the patrons of her tea stall in a singsong manner. The tone of her voice would be in harmony with the languid movements of her hands that would fiddle almost imperceptibly between the chai pan and the chai glasses. But most of the times she would be quiet, listening to friendly familiars chat about her cart. The cart would be parked outside the entry to the fashionable Hauz Khas Village, by the barricade. For a long time, the south Delhi locality has been the site of cafés, pizzerias and restaurants, as well as boutiques and curio shops. Some are garish, some are truly
Mission Delhi – Ranjeet Chaudhary, Hauz Khas Village Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 9, 20240 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He can cook all of the Gunpowder khana. As for Gunpowder, that place was Delhi’s most talked about restaurant for a time (circa 2010). Ranjeet Chaudhary used to work in the kitchen. After it shut down in fashionable Hauz Khas Village and moved south to Goa, he too moved, staying with the restaurant. Now Ranjeet is back in Hauz Khas Village. Last week, he started a new job in the village. It is in an Airbnb guesthouse where he is not a chef, but a housekeeper required to clean the rooms. “I’m grateful to get the work, but ultimately I want to get back to a restaurant kitchen,”
Mission Delhi – Nizam, Dilli Gate Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 5, 20240 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] During the days of extreme pollution, a week ago, his eyes were burning as if someone had flung red chilli powder into them, he says, here on the smoggy street-side, near Dilli Gate metro station, just across the road from the historic Dilli Gate monument. His breathing wasn’t feeling right either. Nizam, a young street snack seller, knew it wasn’t his eyes (or lungs) per se, but the extreme Delhi pollution that arrives every year with the start of cold season. “This winter problem has been with us for many years, and it will stay with us forever,” he declares matter-of-factly. Nizam talks of his village in UP’s
Mission Delhi – Akash ‘Albela’, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 28, 20240 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once upon a time, not so long ago, a boy called Akash lived in Dharam Nagar Bhagri, a village in Bihar’s zila Purbi Champaran. His father was a farmer, so was the father’s father. Akash too was expected to become a farmer. In fact, the family continues to own a plot of agricultural land amounting to “barah ghattha,” which is less than a beegha. On growing out of his childhood, Akash surprised nobody by plunging into a farmer’s routine. He diligently worked on the land, helping produce cyclic harvests of “dhaan, gehu, aloo.” And so the days passed, until Akash fell in love. It ended in heartbreak. He