Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw these young women in Connaught Place, Delhi’s premier shopping district. In army boots, fatigues and caps, they still looked slender and delicate. Cargo pockets on their khaki trousers and shoulder lapels on their shirts were commando-like. A ball-point pen was tucked into their shoulder pocket. Their fully packed ammunition belt and rolled sleeves gave them a battlefield zest. No girl was dressed like them. Of course, the military look is globally a big fashion trend and Delhi is fast catching up, but these women are not ruled by Anna Wintour’s dictates. The fresh graduates of the first all-women battalion of northeast India’s Nagaland Police, they were in

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this young man in the Walled City’s Bulbuli Khana mohalla. He was standing alone in a shaded alley. Goats were scampering across the lane. Flies were buzzing around a tea stall. The air was stinky. In such a grim atmosphere, he was the sunshine. No one else in the overcrowded mohalla was dressed like him. The elegance came from his quiet smile and his clothes: a clean white pajama, a cream-peach sheer muslin kurta and a white topi. Wearing dark-brown leather slip-ons, his right-hand’s forefinger had a plain silver ring. His stubble was more than a day old; a few strands of his chest hairs were

Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man in the Walled City’s Matia Mahal Bazaar. He was selling halwa on the pavement but he actually looked like an Ottoman vizier. The man was glowing as bright as street-lamps though his primary attire was simple: a spotless-white cotton shalwar kurta, which made sense since it was summer. The shining colours came from his necklaces, from the stones of his giant finger rings, from his golden-yellow jooti and from his red velvet tasseled cap, the Turki topi. During the old times in Old Delhi, turki topi was as common as denim is today. The man told me that the cap belonged to his grandfather. Any

Searching for the stylish. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] One summer morning while walking down Kasturba Gandhi Marg in Connaught Place, The Delhi Walla was struck by this woman’s appearance. Amid a blur of tight jeans and salwars (no saree though), her blowy jungle-green harem pants stood out as a more sensible hot-day wear. The black colour of her loose cotton kurta, however, seemed odd if beating heat was the intention. The consolation was that it matched with the black print on her pants, which was of handloom silk. More harmonious was the pants’ spotty golden zari work that echoed noiselessly in the woman’s accessories (earrings, bangles, chappals are not clearly visible in the picture above), all of which