Life of a lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Walls have ears, we know that. But doors with mouths? That’s the magic happening in this gali—two facing doors are chitchatting, that too in human-speak. Blame the twilight dark….
On poet’s trail. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the only Delhi lane named after Delhi’s greatest poet. Ghalib Street starts from Lodhi Road and terminates towards his deserted tomb, here in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. It has…
Pseudo-monsoon. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Evening rush. Forceful breeze harping wildly through the clogged avenues. Suddenly the cloudy sky breaks. Illumined by the street lamps, the rain projectiles become starkly visible, pouring down on earth like iambs…
Dream architecture. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Up, down. Right, left. Wherever you see. The place is swamped with staircases. Each stringed into zig saggy flights of steps. Some suspended in mid-air, almost. Tara Apartments is a fantasyland…
The room lives on. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is gone, lying buried in Dilli Gate cemetry, but his packed bookshelves are in their appointed places. His mattress and pillows, too. The angle the afternoon sunlight is…
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This moment, the young man in white kurta-pajama is poring upon a book. This moment, he is scrawling on a pad. Now, he is thoughtfully…
Life in the heat wave. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] White hot noon. The road is deserted, here in this summertime spot of the megapolis. A group of men is huddled under a pavement tree, along with two…
Life of a lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Tak tak tak tak. An elderly man in an extra-maheen white kurta pajama is walking extremely slowly into the narrow gali. His metal walker is tap-tap-tapping the dusty ground…
Angels of the darkness. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] 8pm, a roadside close to the Rose Garden, Sector 15 Part 1, Gurgaon: Gilded petals stranded in mid-air. These are Amaltas’s golden-yellow blossoms at night. The tree itself is…
A hyoerlocal icon. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Evergreen Sweet House has been a Green Park Market icon since 1963. Jama Masjid too hasn’t budged from its Old Delhi GPS since 1656. Ditto for the derelict Kaman Sarai…
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