Make your life smart and sexy. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Me- 30. Male. White. Not wheatish or fair. I mean white, Anglo American, Gora, Angrej. (Is this offensive yet?) Married. (Now?) To an Indian. (It must be offensive by…
They exist. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi government works hard to make the city’s homeless invisible. In the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the wretched of the roadsides were pushed behind giant hoardings so that foreign athletes could…
The moon-lit bazaar. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Heart of the Walled City, Matia Mahal bazaar is the land of chicken stew, bearded mullahs, kaftan-clad beggars, fat goats and veiled women. Chaotic during the day, it shows its…
A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] For a long time I would try to sit down with In Search of Lost Time, a seven-volume novel by the French writer Marcel Proust. In my…
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] 5.25 am. The sky is still black. It’s freezing. Holding the microphone close to his lips, he opens his mouth to recite the azaan, and……
A la recherche du temps perdu. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] According to an article in The New York Times Book Review: “When Marcel Proust was asked by a French newspaper how he would spend his last hours on earth if…
Meeting of voices. [Text and photo of India Habitat Centre by Mayank Austen Soofi] Three days, 10 sessions, 13 Indian languages, 60 writers. The first Samanvay festival of Indian languages will be hosted in Delhi by the India Habitat Centre…
The philosophy of nonsense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] ‘Fuckass.’ The Delhi Walla saw this calligraphy in the middle circle of N-Block, Connaught Place, Delhi’s colonial-era commercial district. It is depicted on a white paan-stained wall, whose paint…
The faces of Delhi. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] On November 11, 2011, The Times of India carried a news story: Researchers to preserve city’s oral history NEW DELHI: Museums have for long recorded the tangible heritage of…
The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold evening The Delhi Walla saw a burqa-clad woman in the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the 14th century Sufi saint. The shrine is in central Delhi. The…
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