Photo Essay – Common Men, Around Ramlila Maidan

Photo Essay – Common Men, Around Ramlila Maidan

One last chance, Delhi. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is poignant to see a common man proudly wearing a cap that proclaims, “I’m a common man.” One Saturday morning while walking around the Ramlila Ground, The Delhi…

Photo Essay - Disappeared People, Around Town

Photo Essay – Disappeared People, Around Town

Missing from life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Mr. Mohamad Rafiq, Son of Mohamad Ismail Aged 62 yrs. an Afghan National, was missing on 29 May 2011, At 19.00 in Saket The Delhi Walla spotted this flier on…

Photo Essay - Delhi for Paris, Around Town

Photo Essay – Delhi for Paris, Around Town

Je Suis Charlie. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] On January 7 2014, radical Islamists killed 12 people in Paris, the city that gave us the dangerous ideas of secularism, liberty and democracy. Therefore an attack on Paris hurts…

Family Album – The Smiths, Mayapuri

Family Album – The Smiths, Mayapuri

The Delhi coffee table. [Text and photos of photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In order to feel the intimate life of Delhiites, The Delhi Walla is going from house to house, requesting people to show their family photos. Here is…

Photo Essay - Bakra Eid Goats, Old Delhi

Photo Essay – Bakra Eid Goats, Old Delhi

Our dear departed souls. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] These goats will die tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Muslim festival of Eid ul Zuha, or Bakra Eid, in which animals are sacrificed to commemorate the legend of a devout…

Photo Essay - In Praise of Srinagar, September Flood

Photo Essay – In Praise of Srinagar, September Flood

The tragic city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla knows an unpublished poet in Srinagar, Kashmir. The great September flood in the city spared her life but not some of her most beloved possessions. The books…

Photo Essay – Reading in Public, Around Town

Photo Essay – Reading in Public, Around Town

Delhi’s bookworms. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some of the most beautiful sights that The Delhi Walla sees in Delhi are not of monuments or gardens but of people reading in public places. I have seen a butcher…

Photo Essay – Movie Tickets, Old/Extinct Cinemas

Photo Essay – Movie Tickets, Old/Extinct Cinemas

Searching lost time. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Chanakya Cinema in Chankayapuri shut down in 2007 – its building was demolished two years later. The old Sangam Cinema in RK Puram too was razed. The colonial-era Plaza in…

City Notice – India Today Magazine Steals The Delhi Walla’s Photo

City Notice – India Today Magazine Steals The Delhi Walla’s Photo

Theft in journalism. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] It is a great pleasure for The Delhi Walla to be a writer and photographer. But it is very frustrating when a media group steals your work. The June 16 2014 issue of…

Photo Essay - Mobile Phone, Around Town

Photo Essay – Mobile Phone, Around Town

Text me. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One day in 2013 The Delhi Walla’s Sony Xperia stopped working. It felt as if my wife had died. The touch-screen phone had everything I would need if I were to…