Kashmir Diary – The Faces, Srinagar Travel by The Delhi Walla - May 6, 2012May 7, 20120 The unhappy land. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A pizza-maker at Café Arabica. A police constable at the Jamia Masjid. The Delhi Walla is in Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital. An old woman at the Boulevard. A tailor in Maisuma. A Tolstoy lookalike at the Hazratbal shrine. A steward at the Ahdoo’s. The faces of Kashmir. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
Kashmir Diary – The Bund, Srinagar Travel by The Delhi Walla - May 6, 2012May 6, 20121 The unhappy land. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A pathway by the Jhelum, the Bund teems with Kashmiris, not tourists. The Delhi Walla is in Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital. In the afternoon, schoolboys sit on the riverside slopes, while schoolgirls stand around chaat stalls. Others lounge in a garden that is opposite Ahdoo’s, a hotel popular with Delhi journalists who periodically land in the town to cover the unrest in Kashmir. The Bund has many tailoring shops and a few abandoned houses, whose wooden balconies look down towards the empty houseboats. Congested alleys link the quiet Bund to the bustle of Residency Road. A Christian cemetery lies nearby. Hardly any woman is seen during the evening hours. Men walk alone. Some stand by the river
Kashmir Diary – Inner Meanings, Srinagar Travel by The Delhi Walla - May 6, 2012May 6, 20123 The unhappy land. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Pigeons soaring up from Lal Chowk. Mist coming down the snow-capped mountains. A soldier with a gun, he is smiling. A veiled woman inside a bus, sitting on a window-side seat. An empty alley. An abandoned Pundit house. A ruined houseboat on the muddy-brown Jhelum. A white hand plucking white flowers. Lal Chowk as seen from a first-floor restaurant. The Delhi Walla is in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, one of the world’s most heavily militarized regions. The valley has two layers of beauty. The outer skin has superficial loveliness of snow-clad peaks and scenic lakes, a common trait of all the vulgar hill stations of South Asia. The inner layer reaches out
Kashmir Diary – Jamia Masjid, Srinagar Travel by The Delhi Walla - May 5, 2012May 5, 20125 The unhappy land. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Mossy brick paths, grey pigeons, yellow poppies and smooth pillars made from the wood of Deodar. The Delhi Walla is at Jamia Masjid, the grand Friday mosque in Nowhatta, a neighbourhood in the heart of Old Srinagar. Built in 1400 and destroyed thrice by fire, the mosque has four wooden towers at four corners. The principal entrance looks to a bazaar that seems to have seceded from India, at least emotionally. One chai shop is decorated with a framed portrait of Ayub Khan, a former Pakistani president. One wall is depicted with this crudely-drawn calligraphy: Gaza Strip The pillared hall in the mosque shies away from making any political statement. It is dark and quiet.
Kashmir Diary – A Bloodless Evening, Srinagar Travel by The Delhi Walla - May 3, 2012May 3, 20121 The unhappy land. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sun is setting behind Hari Parbat. The ancient temple at the top of Shankaracharya Hill has disappeared from view. The boats on the Dal lake are reduced to their outlines. The Delhi Walla is on the heavily-guarded Boulevard in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. The lights coming from the houseboats have turned the water intro strips of green, red and white. As the night chill sets in, a group of Gujarati tourists leaves the lakeside. Most boatmen, too, are seen preparing to head home. But one boat seems to be stranded on the lake. It has no oar and no boatman. According to a belief in this part of the world, when a
Kashmir Diary – Martyr’s Graveyard, Srinagar Travel by The Delhi Walla - May 1, 2012May 3, 20128 The unhappy land. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The graves are covered with grass, irises and roses. The Martyr’s Graveyard in Old Srinagar is crowded with men who, it is said, died in the struggle for an independent Kashmir. The Delhi Walla is in Kashmir’s capital. The sky is overcast. It is cold. Inscription on the gate: Lest You Forget We Have Given Our Today for Tomorrow of Yours A cobbled path snakes through the cemetery. One grave is draped with a sheet of blue silk. Another has a garland of plastic flowers. Some are surrounded by red roses. A few graves are left empty for tomorrow's martyrs. A lamb is grazing on the adjacent lawn. Far away, black clouds are coming down the pale
City Travel – The Heart of Sufism, Ajmer Sharif Faith Travel by The Delhi Walla - March 13, 2012March 13, 20125 The soul of Delhi. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is the city of Sufis. It is traditionally known as 'Bais khwaja ki chaukhat', the threshold of 22 Sufis. To understand the soul of this city, you must make a pilgrimage to a shrine, which is six hours away from the capital. Take the Shatabdi Express to Ajmer, Rajasthan. The train leaves from New Delhi station at 6 am daily. You reach Ajmer in the afternoon. Get an auto rickshaw to the shrine. On entering, the white dome attracts your attention. It’s not the architecture or the gold centrepiece at its top. Nor the birds circling it. This dome seems to shape and consecrate every moment of this place. The fakirs (ascetics)
City Travel – Nainital, North of Delhi Travel by The Delhi Walla - October 2, 2011July 3, 20151 In search of lost time. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] At a height of 1,938m, giddy tourists gratify themselves by boating on the lake, riding the ropeway trolley and shopping on Mall Road. That’s Nainital, the hill station in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region, 330 km north of Delhi. The sensitive traveller goes back with memories of smog and crowd, trash and traffic, tipplers and honeymooners. Most of Nainital is as scarred as other north Indian hill stations, like Shimla or Mussoorie. Mall Road, the principal promenade, is littered with plastic packets. The hill slopes are pockmarked with hotels. The mossy rocks are painted with ads. The tree branches are entwined with electric cables. Throughout the day, the hills echo with the sound
City Travel – Mussoorie, Uttarakhand Travel by The Delhi Walla - April 14, 2011April 17, 20113 The middle-class Delhi's Switzerland. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Mussoorie, the Himalayan town in Uttarakhand that is a six-hour drive from Delhi, is a resort in name only. The Mall Road, the city's touristy stretch, is littered with chips packets. Hotels have taken over the trees of the hill-slopes. The mossy rocks have been painted with Coca Cola ads. In summer weekends, tourists from Delhi walk down the Mall. The women are in salwar suits and leather jackets, skin-color socks and black heels. The men are in jeans, sweaters and gold chains. The children yell for video game parlours. The cool fresh air is taken for granted. This is middle-class Delhi’s Switzerland. Its beauty conforms to our understanding of aesthetics. The
Jaipur Diary – People of the Festival Travel by The Delhi Walla - January 27, 2011January 27, 20110 Saluting the lit lovers. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s the people. In the 6th Jaipur Literature Festival, The Delhi Walla liked the readers more than the authors. I was moved by the earnestness of Delhi University students who came at their own expenses. I was struck by the long queue that was formed when it was author Ruskin Bond’s turn to sign his books. Since the festival is free and open to all, the five days were like the 12 days of Allahabad’s Kumbh Mela. There was a sea of people and the space wasn’t huge. During the sessions, the chairs would be occupied within seconds. People climbed on tables to have a better view, or sat down on the