Column – Delhi by the Book General by The Delhi Walla - July 29, 20085 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A Pakistani blogger-author is writing a travelogue on Delhi.[Text by Lahore-based Raza Rumi; picture of the author at Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah by Mayank Austen Soofi]Writing about the textbook enemy, the ‘other’, is but a daunting task. Facing the grandiose Humayun’s tomb on a chilly January morning in early 2008, I decided to write a book on Delhi.It was not before I had visited the ancient city that I knew what it symbolised. In Pakistan, we were influenced by the glories of Lahore, my beloved city. Reconstructed histories had kept Delhi invisible. The seat of the Sultans, Mughals and the Raj, precursor of the modern united
City Sightseeing – Heritage Tour 2008 General by The Delhi Walla - July 28, 20086 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A tour of the 21st century Delhi.[Picture and text by Mayank Austen Soofi]Delhi is more than tombs and domes. So, instead of guiding readers to those been-there-seen-that touristy sites — Qutub Minar, Safdarjang Tomb and other phalana danka — The Delhi Walla designs his own heritage highway that respects the past and celebrates the present.Priya cinema complexIn the beginning, there was no PVR. Only Priya. That’s why our tour bus starts from here. Basant Lok, aka Priya complex, is a hangout of historical proportions. India’s first McDonald’s was opened here — many, many years ago — in 1996 AD. It is also the site of
City Life – Demolishing the Unwanted General by The Delhi Walla - July 26, 20085 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.This ain't no city for the poor.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]The day when Delhi's cosmopolitan gay community was flaunting its existence in a parade, I was in a settlement that has ceased to exist. Walking past my old office in Kailash Colony's L block, I took a turn to the right, and reached an open yard. Once a jhuggi cluster of south Indians lived here. The husbands worked as rickshaw-wallas, wives as kaam-waalis, and children lolled around in filth. But now a graveyard-like stillness lurked. In 2006, under the orders of the Delhi High Court, MCD's demolition squad had cleaned up the slum
In Town – Readers of Arundhati Roy General by The Delhi Walla - July 23, 2008October 27, 20102 Possessed by The God of Small Things. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] I have tempered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much. I have crossed into forbidden territory. I love a novel. The God of Small Things. Last night I again dreamt of Arundhati Roy even though it was Anna Karenina who was my sleeping companion. In the morning, I woke up with memories of Ayemenem, the little town in the novel, where "May is always a hot and brooding month". At this moment I’m thinking of Sophie Mol who was A Sunbeam Lent To Us Too Briefly. Later in the day, my thoughts may wander to Khan Market where Larry McLasin noticed
City Life – Bus No. 620 General by The Delhi Walla - July 21, 20086 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Sightseeing in Delhi's most scenic bus route.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]July 14, 2008 Headline Delhi Metro completes tunnel below railway lines at Safdarjung in just 3 daysJuly 14, 2050 Headline Due to lack of passengers (blame the Rs 25,000 cars and the Metro), the Delhi Government will disband DTC. Buses to stop plying from next monthDear reader, we shall soon spot those DTC buses only in books and films, for they would be no more than a dream (or a nightmare?) remembered, a civilisation gone with the wind... the day is not far when our commute would happen under the ground and we
City Hangout – 7pm in Khan Market Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - July 19, 2008May 12, 201114 Life in Delhi's Upper East Side. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Outside a skin clinic: a freshly-Botoxed (Rs 8,000 per session) woman stepping out in Jimmy Choo evening heels (Rs 50,000). Outside a foreign magazine stall: a young man in a faded blue Ed Hardy T-shirt (Rs 12,000) asking for the latest New Yorker (Rs 450). Outside Faqir Chand bookstore: a pot-bellied guy, his spindly hairy legs slanting out of his red Puma shorts (Rs 1,200), talking into his iPhone (Rs 22,000). Outside Khan Market's main gate: rows of Volkswagens (Rs 40 lakh), BMWs (Rs 60 lakh) and Pajeros (Rs 30 lakh) honking for parking – the only free thing here. People in Khan Market are living the dream. Everyone is happy,
Feature – Talking Life in GB Road General by The Delhi Walla - July 15, 20089 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Conversations with sex workers in Delhi's red-light district.[Picture by Shashwat Saxena; text by Mayank Austen Soofi]I have been to Garstin Bastion Road, the city's red-light district, just next to New Delhi railway station (Ajmeri Gate), more than once. Earlier I would only walk in the streets while sex workers would aggressively beckon me from the windows of their kothas. But I was scared to go in. There have been stories about how young 'inexperienced' men were lured inside and then robbed of their mobile phones, wallets, shoes and also clothes. I was better safe outside. Sometimes, being a wannabe photographer, I would take out my
Feature – Delhi, the City of Villages General by The Delhi Walla - July 12, 20082 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.There are 275 of them in the metropolis.[Text and picture of the Hauz Khas village by Mayank Austen Soofi]Delhi is India's capital but it may as well be a separate planet. Even as the country's urban-rural divide gets wider, the city's urban sprawl is appearing to mix seamlessly with its rural backyard. Err, backyard is not the right term. Most villages of Delhi, there are 275 'revenue villages' in all, do not lie at its periphery. They are right there in the Capital's heart. Sometimes you don't even know you are in a village. For instance, the short walk from Kailash Colony to Zamrudpur won't
City Notes – No Women Inside Nizamuddin Dargah Faith General by The Delhi Walla - July 9, 2008July 30, 20109 Shame on the house of Delhi's best known Sufi shrine. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] What if Nobel laureate Mr. VS Naipaul goes to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's dargah? What would Mr. Naipaul, ever the pessimist, ever the cynic, observe in the famous south Delhi shrine? Going by his past, if he goes on to write a book, Mr. Naipaul would surely use the most elegant language to describe the filth, the stench, the beggars, the unruly crowd, the shouting, the shoving and the general hullaballoo. He would notice all the unpleasant aspects of the dargah and ignore the beauty of it: the serenity, the peace and the Sufi ishq. Reading such an account, I would just shrug and smirk. But what if Mr.
City Life – Getaways from Middle Class Delhi General by The Delhi Walla - July 7, 200815 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Save me from respectable people[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]Not long ago, a particular breed of Delhiwallas went to Goa to escape the rush hours of urban living. But now as the middle classes begin to feel the pinch of rising airline ticket costs and food inflation, they have jettisoned the idea of flying, and returned to that traditional holiday hotspot - the humble, not so idyllic anymore, hill station. So I too, pushed by the two-digit inflation, hit upon the idea of Nainital for a weekend getaway. There I discovered that the entire lake town appeared to have been invaded by Delhiwallas.