Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Ashok Kumar Malik, Sunday Book Bazar Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - March 20, 20250 Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] With his long grey beard, the calmly book browser is resembling literary lions like Tolstoy and Tagore. Poet Ashok Kumar Malik is a faithful patron of Delhi’s Sunday Book Bazar, commuting almost every Sunday from his Ghaziabad residence to the market in Mahila Haat. This afternoon, he agrees to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. The principal aspect of your personality. I’m continually absorbing and being absorbed by nature. Your idea of happiness. Happiness has to be redefined… I think it is more important to cultivate our sensitivity at the risk of ending up hurt or sad.
City Season – Leaf Shedding, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 19, 20250 Leaving leaves. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The scene is full of descending motion expressing immense silence (like the snowfall in the Himalayas). A small crowd has gathered, wordlessly watching the surreal phenomenon, here in central Delhi, in a stone courtyard overlooking poet Ghalib’s tomb. Hundreds of leaves are drifting down from an enormous pilkhan tree, its branches spread super-wide. In the western world, the month of March is a time when new leaves appear on trees that were bare during the winter. In Delhi, the month of March is a time when scores of trees become bare, making a big show of letting go of their leaves. This is part of their annual strategy to survive the
City Faith – 688th Urs, Hazrat Chirag Dehlavi’s Dargah Faith by The Delhi Walla - March 18, 20252 A sufi shrine's special day. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] During the day, the marble courtyard stays sparse, serene, and silent. At night, it darkens, growing more silent. Tonight (March 18) will be an exception. The courtyard shall stay awake with crowds, bright lights, and musical qawwalis. The Sufi shrine of Hazrat Chirag Dehlavi is today celebrating the 688th urs, or death anniversary, of its saint--in Sufism, a mystic’s death is not mourned but celebrated, marking his union with the beloved, who is God. Despite its status as an important centre of Sufism, the dargah in south Delhi rarely draws throngs of pilgrims or tourists. Maybe because it is not easily approachable, ensconced beyond a dense warren of houses, shops,
City Walk – Katra Dhobiyan, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - March 17, 20250 The Old Delhi street encyclopedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Narrow noisy lanes choking the cramped crowded localities. This being the primal force behind the steady exodus of the Walled City wale from the Walled City. The first trickle started some decades ago when households with centuries-old roots in historic Old Delhi started to flee the Walled City’s through its vanished walls. In quest of space and daylight (and playgrounds for children), many of them merely crossed the Yamuna river, transplanting themselves in nearby places like Lakshmi Nagar. The entrance to Old Delhi’s Katra Dhobiyan is predictably dismal—it lets in no daylight, and promises nothing but congestion ahead. This sunny afternoon, the tunnel-like corridor is submerged in darkness. But… big
City Landmarks – Road Names, Around Town Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - March 13, 20250 The Irvin Road mystery [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] So weird. The mosque’s gigantic signage is calling it Masjid Irvin Road. A masjid sure is standing on the spot, but Delhi has no road of such name. And yet here is worker Omvati (see photo) washing anew the municipality signage that confidently bears this non-existent road name. Actually Irvin Road is today known as Baba Kharak Singh Marg. Irvin was a British administrator in colonial India. Kharak Singh was an Indian anti-colonialist. And stuck between these two is this mute roadside landmark forgetting to update its name. This is how a city’s identities sometimes get flummoxed—when new times rawly reinterpret the olden times into a contemporary context. What was in
City Landmark – Kwality Restaurant, Regal Cinema Building Food Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - March 12, 20250 Quality by any other spelling. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] To turn 85 is a privilege. It means you have lived a decade beyond your golden anniversary. This year, two Delhi institutions meet this milestone. One is a novel. The Delhi Walla celebrated Ahmad Ali’s Twilight in Delhi earlier this week. The other is a restaurant. The year of founding—1940—is embossed on the glass door. Kwality restaurant at Regal Cinema building is one of the longest surviving landmarks of Connaught Place (CP). This is a rare accomplishment considering that at least three other landmarks of Regal Cinema building have become history: A Godin & Co. piano shop, Gaylord restaurant and People’s Tree boutique. Even the Regal Cinema hasn’t
City Culture – Caravaggio in Delhi, Italian Cultural Center Culture by The Delhi Walla - March 11, 20250 Mary Magdalen comes to Dilli. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This piece of news needs no clever, artful opening. It is simply unprecedented. Until now, we Delhiwale would have to visit foreign museums to admire the works of great European painters. Delhi has never had the privilege of hosting such icons. But now a Caravaggio will land in Indira Gandhi international airport in a special aircraft. The Italian embassy’s Cultural Center in Delhi has pulled off an ambitious enterprise, of getting an original work by one of the western civilisation’s most brilliant and controversial artists to our city. Painted by Caravaggio around 1600, the privately owned ‘Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy’ has just been exhibited in a Beijing museum. On its
City Anniversary – Ahmad Ali’s Twilight in Delhi, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - March 10, 20250 Twilight of Delhi. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] To turn 85 is a privilege. It means you have lived a decade beyond your golden anniversary. This year, two Delhi institutions are reaching this milestone. One is a novel. The other is a… we’ll celebrate the other one later in the week! Published in the autumn of 1940, Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi recreates a world of poets and lovers, begums and havelis, dargahs and tombs—and all of this is arranged around Jama Masjid (see photo). The sandstone mosque is mentioned many times over across the pages. Indeed, every Twilight devotee has her own beloved scene in the novel. A few of us for instance might fondly recall “Chaori Bazar”
City Walk – Gali Captain Wali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - March 9, 20250 The Old Delhi street encyclopedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Captains lived here, just don’t ask what kind of captains—pleads machine repairer Saif. His workshop is scooped into a lonesome stretch of Old Delhi’s Gali Captain Wali. This afternoon, the narrow lane is empty. All the machines in Saif’s workshop are lying mended, the repairer says. That’s why he is standing idle by his counter, leaning out purposelessly into the darkened passage. Rubbing his forehead, he says that “perhaps these were the captains of the Indian Air Force… now no captains live here.” Suddenly, a side-door opens and a man emerges. The same moment, a third person steps into the lane. The scene no longer looks lonesome. See photo. Gali
City Nature – River Yamuna, DND Flyway General by The Delhi Walla - March 7, 20250 River sutra. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The water is opaque and blackish, moving sluggishly. A man slowly emerges from under it. His whole body stays submerged in the water, except for the head. He looks up, and waves at the gazer standing by the bridge. The bridge is upon the Yamuna. The sacred river originates from the snowbound altitude of the Himalayas, falls into the plains, flows through Haryana, and then is obliged to traverse for 20 very dismal kilometres through Delhi, where more than 20 drains eject their refuse into it. While some 15 bridges span over the Yamuna along its fateful Delhi course, this bridge on the DND flyway most cinematically illustrates the bonds between the megapolis and