The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One winter morning The Delhi Walla accompanied thumri singer Vidya Rao to the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the 14th century sufi saint. Ms Rao was carrying a copy…
The poet’s ghetto. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Khwaja Mir Dard Basti, or Shakur ki Dandi, is crude and poorly constructed. Yet it has poetry, music and handmade art. It is sandwiched between the city’s tallest high-rise and…
The philosophy of nonsense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] ‘Sangita, I fuck you.’ ‘Your mother’s cunt’. ‘Book a cock.’ The Delhi Walla saw this calligraphy in Connaught Place, Delhi’s colonial-era commercial district. They are depicted in the dusty…
Qawwali at Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia’s Dargah. [Poem by Agha Shahid Ali; photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] I Between two saints, he shares the earth, Mohommad Shah “Rangeele,” (evoked in Paluskar’s khayal) The beggar-woman kisses the marble lattice, sobs on Khusro’s…
Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man in New Delhi railway station. He was wearing a white lungi, white vest, steel-grey blazer and a necklace of white plastic beads. He…
Life in Delhi’s prettiest neighborhood. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Hauz Khas Village has become a ‘hang out’. Artist types still come but the ageless rich have infiltrated in large numbers. These people look successful, cocky and aggressively…
Signs of our times. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] News flash on a website: 2G:BJP demands probe against PM, PC. The meaning of the cuss word Chutium Sulphate, explained in an online dictionary: “Complete moron, as in, That…
One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] As the lungi-wearing young man complaining of a sore throat leaves with medicines, Dr Ubaidul Aleem turns to the small TV placed beside his…
The spring of life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He raises his arms, lowers his head, stays still, takes a deep breathe and jumps from the roof and… SPLASH! He crash lands into the cold dark brown water….
Once it was happening. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dry fountain, broken benches, shoe shine boys, doped beggars, stray cows, and palmists making suspicious predictions. Don’t judge Basant Lok Market by its rundown look. In the heart of…
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