City Hangout - Salim Tea House, Matia Mahal Bazaar

The pleasures of a hyperlocal lounge. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Students of human behavior could do worse than turning up at the Salim Tea House where all manner of men can be scrutinized. This morning two gentlemen…

City Faith - Beyond Thursday Evening Qawwalis, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah

The world of sufi music. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You can find it in the Lonely Planet and in most city guides. Even William Dalrymple has written about it in his Delhi memoirs. It also appears in…

City Moment - Friends from Kabul, Lodhi Gardens

The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Two thousand four hundred years after it was written, The Delhi Walla bumps into somebody actually reading the classic Chinese text Tao Te Ching. And poring over it in Farsi,…

City Landmark -- The Long Narrow Entry Lane, Basti Mir Dard

The relationship with the passageway. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi may be a world unto itself – encompassing nearly 25 million of us. But it’s also countless private lives vividly played out on the streets and alleyways…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Rajeswari Bhattacharya, Bangalore

The 190th death. [Text and photos sent by Rajeswari Bhattacharya] Rajeswari Bhattacharya has been pronounced dead. She jumped off the building with as much enthusiasm as she would sing Tagore’s “Bhalobasi, Bhalobasi” (I love, I love), as if in eager…

City Monument – Mubarak Begum Masjid, Hauz Qazi

The mosque of the whore. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Machine-part shops overflowing with nuts, bolts, cables, and welding rod electrodes. And amid these sights soars the infinitely graceful Mubarak Begum masjid. Situated in a congested Old Delhi…

Mission Delhi – Anand Kumar, Naraina

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s proving to be a terrible day for salesman Anand Kumar. For the past four hours, he’s been walking around the streets trying in vain…

Julia Child in Delhi –  Poet Mateen Amrohvi Serves Up Poet Ghalib's Favroite Daal, Central Delhi

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s no child’s play to crack Ghalib. Even high-brow Urdu literates find his poetry formidable—Ghalib is all allusions and metaphors, or so The Delhi Walla has heard….

Atget’s Corner – 1096-1100, Delhi Photos

The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds,…

City Moment – Semal Flowers, Jeevan Prakash Building

The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The arrival of Delhi’s dreaded summer is most poetic. It is heralded by the blooming of the red semal. These flowers start growing when their large, stout trees are…