City Walk – Gali Nal Wali, Old Delhi
The too-short lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This story ought to be really short and must have only three sentences. For this is about Old Delhi’s shortest street, which has just three residential addresses. You can walk…
City Walk – Patli Gali, Old Delhi
The too-narrow lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] You are walking nonchalantly through this severely cramped walled lane in the Walled City. Suddenly somebody approaches from the opposite direction. One of you will have to give up the…
City Walk – Gali Takhat Wali, Old Delhi
The street of wooden cot. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dictionary describes it as “any place raised above the ground for sitting, reclining, or sleeping.” Basically a wooden cot, it gives its name to an Old Delhi street….
City Walk – Gali Sui Walan, Old Delhi
The street of the tailor’s needle. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Thickness of a hair; tiny opening at one end. It is the sui, the tailor’s needle, and this barely tangible thing lends its name to this super-bustling…
City Walk – Chhatta Shaikh Mangloo, Old Delhi
Life of a lane. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It flows like a nadi from under the shadow of the Jama Masjid. But a citizen walking on the street won’t see anything of the grand mosque. Flanked by…
City Walk – Asaf Ali Road, Old Delhi
Road by the vanished wall. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Like people, places grow, reach their pinnacle, and then decline. Something like Old Delhi’s Asaf Ali Road. Its cordon of grand buildings once housed la-di-da institutions. Today, modest…
City Walk – Faseel Road Part 2, Old Delhi
Path by the wall. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some uncertainly say it exists. Most say it doesn’t. The Faseel Road signage is elusive. The road’s name does occasionally pop up on shop hoardings, but no dedicated signboard…
City Walk – Faseel Road Part 1, Old Delhi
Path by the wall. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The dictionary meaning of the Persian word Faseel is ‘qile ki diwar,’ the fort wall. Once the entire Old Delhi was gheraoed by a 5.5 miles-long city wall, punctuated…
City Walk – Sir Syed Road, Old Delhi
Scholar’s lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Our Dilli has no dearth of books for those who have a taste for old buildings. Published in 1846, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s illustrated Urdu classic Asar-al-Sanadid (Relics of Past Things)…
City Walk – Monsoon Stroll, Civil Lines
Civil Lines impressionism. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A well-known couple residing in upscale Civil Lines, in north Delhi, recently checked themselves for a few days into a room at the India International Center (Annexe). Reason: their area…
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