City Neighbourhood- Gali Peerji Wali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - March 10, 20240 Mystic’s lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] They forgot the water jug. The family must have vacated the old house in a hurry. Not much remains of the mansion except for a green door and a corner wall, the shelves still standing. The poor jug is lying abandoned on one of those shelves (see photo). Whatever, things are moving fast here. A new building is coming up on the plot—maybe the household will return after its completion. Same saga for most of Purani Dilli. Timeworn edifices are being razed down speedily. The historic quarter is getting rejuvenated with contemporary housing to compliment today’s lifestyles. Soon, the shelves and the door too will be razed down, and then nobody will remember
City Neighbourhood- Gali Godo Wali, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - March 4, 20240 A secretive world. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] With its extreme narrowness and darkened ambiance, Gali Godo Wali has the mood of an underground tunnel . Plus, it is so secretive that it doesn’t exist even on Google (until the moment this dispatch goes online!). Sunny afternoon notwithstanding, the short, straight claustrophobic lane is lying pickled in a cooling musty dampness. A door ajar reveals a warren of additional doors—what had seemed to be a single house might be consisting of many houses. From a window ahead comes the muffled rattle of deep freezers; that’s in fact a cold storage for a nearby biryani eatery. The next window bears a handwritten flier for festive dresses. The lane ends into an
City Neighbourhood – Gali School Wali, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 26, 20240 Lane of doorways. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Standing outside an archaic blue doorway, a man in blue (see photo) is singing a tragically worded lullaby, pleading for alms. He pauses, stands silently for some time, and walks away, going past a pink doorway, similarly patterned, past a green doorway, similarly patterned, past… oh well, this Walled City lane is extraordinary for being full of arched doorways. Each is an intricately detailed piece of art, many revealing a skeletal frame of slim narrow lakhori bricks, the building material of yesteryears. The only structure in Gali School Wali that looks contemporary—meaning, as grey and featureless as any building—is the municipality-run school from which the gali gets its name. On a more considered
City Walk – Civil Lines, Gurugram Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 23, 20240 A walk for a civil season. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The fog is gone. The smog isn’t so visible. The sky is of a rare blue, at least on certain days. It is that magical time of the year when the bitter cold has receded and heat is still to become unbearable. This is the best period to repeat a quiet walk in one of Delhi’s quietest, most serene places—the Civil Lines in Gurugram. Start with the old wing of the historic Church of Epiphany (see photo), consecrated in 1866 by the Bishop of Calcutta for a handful of British officers. A stroll around the red building reveals its colonial-era origins—the slim lancet windows, the small bell tower, the
City Walk – Gali Mochiyan, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 18, 20240 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] If it were faithful to its name, Gali Mochiyan this afternoon would be full of shoe makers at work. Instead, the gali is resonating with the whirring of a sewing machine. No “mochi” lives in Gali Mochiyan any longer, mutters a passer-by. Another gives his dissent to the assertion, explaining that “a community of shoe makers resided in this street many years ago, but down the generations those dwellers have either moved out, or changed the profession.” Meanwhile, a woman in black approaches the source of the machine sound. On reaching the counter at Rushda Fancy Tailor, she demands a “piko” for her dupatta. She could as well
City Walk – Prithviraj Road, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 7, 2024February 8, 20240 A stroll through exclusivity. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The road is wide. The pavement is also wide, so wide that three or four of us can easily walk together side by side. Meanwhile, the night air is cool and fresh, making Delhi’s smog appears like a rumour. Maybe because it rained a while ago. The road is walled on both side with gigantic peepals, pilkhans, jamuns and (unbelievably massive) banyans. The traffic is scant. Only 10pm but such deep sannata, as if it were midnight. The city seems to be asleep. But honestly, which city is this? Certainly not the everyday Delhi we are familiar with. Speckled with sprawling bungalows, Prithviraj Road is mostly the address of the extreme
City Neighbourhood – Gali Ghisi Int, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 13, 20240 A street with an unusual name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It feels like Vladivostok. Just as remote, as isolated from the crowded and familiar world. This silent Old Delhi street, on the slope of Pahari Bhojla, is the side-lane of a side-lane of a lane. On this cold windy afternoon, most doors and windows are shut closed. The plaque bearing the street’s name is partly hidden behind a loopy tangle of black cables (see photo). The name is extraordinary--Gali Ghisi Int, the street of worn-out brick. The only open door is that of a silversmith’s workshop. The young owner’s family has been living on the street for generations, but he cannot shed any light on its name. He instead points to
City Neighbourhood – Gali Ghantewali, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 9, 20240 A street of the bell. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Lazy but punctual, it comes back every hour to mark the passing of time. Sometimes its sound is so muted by the daytime blabber of the streets, and one could imagine it has stopped. But there can be no confusion at night—the sound spreads in ripples, its prosaicness distilled out of a reservoir of poetry. Or rather, that is how it must have been like, for it no longer exists. That almost mythical grand bell—It was believed to have adorned the mansion of a silver merchant—that gave its identity to a street in Old Delhi, on the slopes of Pahari Bhojla. Today, the only ghanta in Gali Ghantewali is in
City Neighbourhood – Gali Gondni Wali, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - December 31, 20230 A street of the interiors. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Walking down the Walled City galis is comparable to chase scenes in James Bond thrillers in which the hero is running after the anti-hero through a variety of constantly changing backdrops. Take Gali Gondni Wali. The scene changes drastically at every turn. The lane is packed with picturesque doorways, groceries and chai shops. This afternoon, a veggie seller is encircled by four cats and a dog. Just before the gali peters out into a doorway, you pass by an opening on the right that looks like a private corridor. It is actually a roofed alley of the same gali, very badly lit, in which the atmopshere is silent and dark, and
City Neighbourhood – Gali Dakotan, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - December 25, 20230 Lane of Saturday people. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Place-names in Old Delhi make sense. Gosht Wali Pahari is nestled along a pahari and has shops selling gosht. Pahari Imli had an imli tree. Gali Akhare Wali had an akhara. Gali Mazar Wali had a mazar. Gali Jagat Cinema Wali had Jagat Cinema. Gali Dakotan had dacoits. Not true—this bit about Gali Dakotan. The error is borne out of an unfortunate symmetry of words. The pronunciation of ‘dakotan’ is so easily confused with ‘dakait’, or ‘dacoit’, that many Walled City residents buy into the false narrative. Including Gali Dakotan wale themselves, or at least these two residents chatting this afternoon at the street’s dead-end. The women are shocked that their