A vanishing world. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold afternoon The Delhi Walla knocked at the door of Somini Sengupta, the former South Asia bureau chief of The New York Times. Ms Sengupta, 43, is working on…
Four hours in Delhi’s premier shopping district. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Connaught Place, aka CP, Delhi’s Colonial-era shopping district, is changing rapidly. Old landmarks are giving way to new. Under extensive renovation in 2010, CP is returning…
The New Year resolutions. [Pictures by Aanchal Malhotra; text by Mayank Austen Soofi] Greetings. In 2010, my life’s first books – the four-volume The Delhi Walla series – were published. But my life didn’t change. I wasn’t invited to the…
This is injustice. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold afternoon, The Delhi Walla went to Jantar Mantar after receiving a chain text message the day before on the cell phone: Join citizens’ protest against the conviction of…
Homeless in winter streets. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold December midnight, The Delhi Walla was walking on Lodhi Road. It had rained in the day. The homeless people were sleeping on the pavement, which was still…
The soul food for winter. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Peanut roasting is a cold-weather trade on Delhi’s streets. The Bhaiyyas, mostly migrants from the impoverished countryside of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, fill up their carts with popcorn,…
Delhi’s most notorious seditionist. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening, The Delhi Walla sighted his most beloved Delhiite – author Arundhati Roy. She was walking down an alley in Hauz Khas Village, south Delhi. Ms Roy was…
Delhi’s saddest museum. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opened in 2004, the Walled City museum in Lahore Gate smells of urine. Housed in the Shri Narayan haveli, circa 1929, the windowpanes are broken, the door is unlocked, the…
One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s mid-morning but it doesn’t matter to her. “Time doesn’t exist in my life,” says painter Usha Hooda as she dabs her brush in…
Delhi’s most beautiful forest. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] You don’t have to fly to Copenhagen or Cancun to save the planet. The other day The Delhi Walla joined Pradip Krishen, author of Trees of Delhi, for an…
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