Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man one morning at Turkman Gate, one of the five surviving gateways built to protect the Mughal-era Shahjahanabad. He was in a white shirt, white pants, white topi, black waistcoat and black strapped sandals. His beard was white. The hair on his head was dyed with henna. There was no one dressed like him. Established by Emperor Shahjahan, the Walled City has seen better days. Chickens are slaughtered beside roadside drains. People spit on walls. Beggars lie doped. Flies buzz on street food. Electric cables dangle dangerously. Chaos rules. This man has disturbed the disorder. The white of his dress is without a spot. His sandals are

Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man in New Delhi railway station. He was wearing a white lungi, white vest, steel-grey blazer and a necklace of white plastic beads. He had light brown shoes and he hadn't put on socks. His hair was white, his eyes were red, and his skin was dark, leathery and wrinkled. There was no one dressed like him. The white of the man’s lungi and vest had turned off-white, a shade that harmonized with that of his shoes. A white bag was slung around his shoulder. His right hand had a lathi for support; the other carried a small aluminum pail for begging. In Delhi, as in all

Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man in Bazaar Sitaram, a grocery and vegetable market in the Old Quarter. He was wearing a black cap, white kurta, white dhoti and black leather shoes. His glasses were perched high on the nose, partially hiding his wiry eyebrows. Light-brown sandalwood paste was lightly smeared at the center of his forehead. His hair was grey, his moustache was trimmed and his skin was wrinkled. There was no one dressed like him. The man’s casually crumpled kurta reached his knees. The round collar bordered his neck; folds of his aging skin gracefully emerging out of it. The white dhoti was striking. An unstitched piece of cloth wrapped

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man on Mirza Ghalib street in Nizamuddin Basti, a 14th century village famous for the shrine of sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The man was wearing a black karakul cap, black sherwani, white pajama, mustard green socks and brown leather shoes. His glasses were rectangular, his hair was long and his beard was wiry. There was no one dressed like him. The man’s sherwani, with its big black round buttons, reached almost to his shoes. The breast pocket had two pens. A hint of white flashed from behind the sherwani’s collar; must be the kurta underneath. It was a warm humid night and the man would

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this young man in a street in Chitli Qabar, a neighbourhood in Delhi’s 17th century Old Quarter. He was wearing a mustard-green woolen blazer, black denim jeans and green sandals. His jeans was rolled up to his ankles, his head was tonsured, and he was sporting a stubble. There was no one dressed like him. The man was actually shirtless and the golden brass buttons of his blazer were open. There were clumps of hair on his chest that tapered down to a light fuzz towards his navel. The region below was shaved. It was sweaty hot. When I asked him that why he was wearing a blazer,

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this boy-child at a back-lane in Greater Kailash-I, an upscale neighbourhood in south Delhi. He was wearing a check turban, a pale blue shirt and a dark blue denim trouser, flamboyantly embroidered on its right leg. His strapped sandals had blue-and-black borders and the buckle of his belt was shaped into a woman’s lips with a heart within. He was carrying a shovel. There was no one dressed like him. The boy-child should have been in a school uniform. Instead he was dressed like a workman. That misfortune failed to reflect on his in-built smartness. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. The shirt was neatly

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man at an alley in Bulbuli Khana, a congested neighborhood in the Walled City, the historic district established by the Mughals. His outfit was elaborate and rooted to his culture: a black karakul cap, a grey kurta, a grey jacket, a grey pajama and a bluish grey sherwani. His beard was white; his shoes were light brown. There was no one dressed like him. The man’s sherwani and inner jacket were unbuttoned, which did not interfere with his formal grace. Walking slowly towards a nearby mosque, he looked like as if he had stepped out of the pages of a tragic Urdu novel set in 19th century

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man-boy in the park above Palika Bazaar parking in Connaught Place, Delhi’s Colonial-era shopping district. Talking on a black-and-red cell phone, he was in black trouser, black shirt, black waistcoat and black shoes. A black dinner jacket lay folded on his left arm (The winter was ending and it was too warm to wear it). However, it wasn’t the black, but the red of his glasses and tie that caught my eye. No one was dressed like him. While imposisble to source the exact origin of his chic (his innocent amorousness? His punk haircut? His slimness), a part of it definitely came from his hesitantly independent spirit

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man coming out of Barakhamba Metro station, gate no. 6, in Connaught Place, Delhi’s premier commercial district. It was 9 am, the rush hour. At first, I could only see his red turban, the essential headgear of the Sikhs. After getting off the escalators, the much younger crowd got ahead of him. Tapping his spiral-detailed walking stick (mahogany?) on the cemented ground, he slowly emerged into full view. The man’s white beard was arranged neatly; his body was frail; his posture erect; his eyes shielded by maroon-rimmed spectacles were grey. The greyness of his crisscross printed tie, worn with a double knot, was in harmony with

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this woman in Janpath, the flea market in central Delhi’s Connaught Place. Wearing a white jumpsuit, white sandals, dark sunglasses and no make-up, she had two shopping bags on her right arm. An off-white satchel bag was slung around her shoulders. Her black hair was falling around her. Her pendant – two silver coloured half-moons – was carelessly strung on her neck. Walking past a fruit vendor, who was in a brown sari with orange floral motifs, the young woman’s minimal look made a style statement. The white colours sat smoothly on her caramelised skin tone. No one in Janpath was dressed like her. It is the