My life as an artist. [Photos by Visual Pan] Dear reader, one of the most amazingly beautiful things that happened in my life as a blogger/writer/photographer was the exhibition of a sample of my instagram posts in the prestigious Serendipity Arts Festival held in Goa in December, 2019. My show--part of a project called My Colour on Your Plate--was curated by artist Subodh Gupta. These are pictures of the exhibition sent to me by the folks at Serendipity Arts Festival, 2018. 1. 2. 3. 4. 4a. 4b. 5. 6. 6a. 7. 8. 8a. 9. 9a. 10. 10a. 11. 12. 12a. 12b. 13.

The love of anonymity. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Loneliness is a horror, as poet Emily Dickinson famously wrote, not to be surveyed. But have you ever felt its icy sensation on your skin? In the crowded city I live in (Delhi), loneliness is everywhere. It is a young pensive-looking woman sitting on the steps of Rajauri Garden metro station. It is a grey-haired man crouching on the grassy grounds of Lodhi Garden. It is a silhouette in Central Park, a broken soul at Hazrat Nizamuddin’s dargah. Loneliness is a coolie in a railway station, a society lady in a living room. It is even a bird, or a dog. It is the woman who sells jasmine flowers at night in the

Being Jane. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Since my middle name is ‘Austen’, some people confuse me as being some distant relative of Jane Austen. That’s not true at all. In fact, I am The Jane Austen. I consider myself an incarnation of the world’s greatest drawing-room novelist because I have successfully internalized her. Every year, for instance, I read all of Jane Austen’s six novels, from the beginning to the end. I’ve been doing this for a decade. In addition, my bedside reading includes a collection of her letters that I flip through randomly every night before closing my eyes. To be frank, I was actually planning to write something else this week but then I made the mistake of absent-mindedly

The end of the world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] For at least two days in November, Delhi was cloaked in smog. During the day, you couldn’t see the sun. At night, the stars and the moon went missing. It became completely normal to see people going around their life wearing anti-pollution masks. The Delhi Walla went around the town to witness the terrifying scenes. The world as we know it... now 1. Yay! Honey, We Finally Screwed the Sunrise! 1a. City Vanished 2. ‪The Tainted Tapestry of Picasso’s Guernica, or Just a Slow-Moving Suicide March in the World’s Foulest City‬ 3. On the Death of Mankind... in the World’s Most Polluted City With No Sun No Moon 4. I’m Going... Never Look for Me 5. Faces of the

Fan stories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Before the AC, before the cooler, there was the fan. It is probably still hanging there in your room — look up and check. Or maybe you have a pedestal fan on the side table. These days, fans are rarely seen in modern offices; the air in these buildings remains cool and fresh through central air-conditioning systems instead. Even so, despite the increasing embrace of air-conditioners in our flats, fans continue to survive. This summer, The Delhi Walla travelled across Delhi looking for the whirling blades — on the streets, in shops, inside drawing rooms and, in one case, beside a tandoor. If a day comes when they become a rare sight, we can always have

On Vikram Seth's hero. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Who shall be Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy? BBC has announced its adaption of Mr Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy. It will be the British broadcaster's first period drama with non-white characters. The shooting will began in India in 2018. The series will be scripted by Andrew Davies, the writer behind BBC’s groundbreaking adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The Delhi Walla suggests the series's casting directors a few brown Delhi boys for the role of the perfect Suitable Boy. Check below. Hero materials 1. 1a. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 9a. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.