GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A peek into the mind of young Muslims.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Fourteen days after the Delhi blasts, ten days after the 'encounter' in Jamia Nagar, and a day after the explosion in Mehrauli, life is no longer the same for the students of Delhi's Jamia Millia University. It's night and I'm in the boys' hostel of this prestigious university that, though secular in character, attracts thousands of Muslim students from all over the country. Amidst rumours of 'plain-clothed policemen' interrogating students, Mr Faraz Husain, final year student in B. Arch, says, "Friends outside the University jokes that Jamia will be banned on

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The Delhi Walla takes a ride.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Scene I: ISBT, Anand Vihar. It's so humid that even fish can swim in the air. I have to go to CP and the Anand Vihar-Dhaula Kuan Blueline is gurrring to go. Hey, look – 543. It's red, low-floor and sleek. Is it that AC-walli bus newspapers have written about? But it's heading to Mehrauli. Who cares? Anything to get away from the humidity. I knock on the glass door, the driver sitting inside his 'cockpit' presses a button and phurrr, the door slides open. Noiselessly. Scene II: Inside, it's as cool as Rajdhani

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Sorrows of a far-flung correspondent.[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; pictures by the people of Purnia]These are jottings that I scribbled on the notepad during my stay in Purnia, the town closest to flooded regions of north Bihar where I volunteered in relief efforts. I always wanted to be a newspaper correspondent who would cover stories in the world's dangerous hotspots like Baghdad, Mogadishu, Khartoum, Kabul, Peshawar and Kashmir. There I would have clandestine meetings with terrorists, interview dissidents, chat with cab drivers, drink beer in the local press club, attend dinners with socialites and stay awake till dawn to file stories. So, it was thrilling

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.To be or not to be a reporter.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] As a David Remnick wannabe, it's a dream come true to tumble from one disaster zone into another. On 9/11, I was in flood-hit Bihar. On 9/13, my train chugged into Nizamuddin station. Just in time. That day, at 6.32 pm, I was in Khan Market when Barakhamba, Central Park, Karol Bagh and GK I M-Block Market were rocked by serial blasts. This was a big Delhi story and I, The Delhi Walla, thought if I do the right reporting, take the right quotes and write the right adjectives, I would

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Don't forget Bihar's human tragedy.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]I spent a week volunteering in relief efforts in flooded regions of Bihar.The abrupt shift in Kosi's course in Bihar has flooded farm fields, submerged villages, drowned people but it has, so far, failed to snuff out the romance in the life of "perhaps 18 or 19-year-old" Mr Tuntun Kumar (middle in the picture), a "flood victim" at a relief camp in Purnia's spanking new Aastha Mandir. Despite the catastrophe unfurling around him, Mr Tuntun Kumar remains lost in the thoughts of Mrs Archana Devi, his "perhaps 16 or 17-year-old wife" who is still struggling

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Making sense in the aftermath.[Text by Priya Sen; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]India Gate, September 13th, 6.20 or so in the evening. I had decided to walk from Triveni Kala Academy towards Khan Market. India Gate was as India Gate is on a weekend evening. Walking through it made me think of other times I had been there, a few specific memories and a general sense of being in Delhi - of familiarity and ease from having been here for as long as I have. It took 15 minutes to cross over to Shah Jahan Road. Later I heard there were a couple of bombs

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Let the Capital cry.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Ram Manohar Lohiya Aspatal. List out. Chandarbhan - 50/m. Anu Rani - 25/f. Neha Sharma - 22/f. Male injured - 36. Male expired - 3. Total injured. Total expired......Grandfather missing. 5-year-child in bandages. An 8-month pregnant woman moaning with pain...Please do not salute the spirit (whatever it is) of Delhi. Let us not carry on with the daily business of our life – at least for one day. Let the city cry.Life can change in an eveningHave you seen him? (at Ram Manohar Lohiya Hospital)Do you know any of them?Do you know any of them? Do

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.O Delhi, my Delhi.[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; pictures by AFP]Two days after 9/11, at around half past six, I was browsing at Khan Market's Bahri Booksellers when Mr M Singh, the bookshop assistant, cried out that Delhi has been hit by serial bomb blasts. Kahan? Where? Kitne mare? How many dead?Five blasts in three places.In Central Park. Just opposite Gate No. 1 of Palika Bazar. Another, next to the metro station at Barakhamba. One more at Ghaffar Market in Karol Bagh. Ek aur at M-Block Market in GK-I. And…a breaking news on TV by Delhi Mayor Ms Arti Mehra – “A very recent blast

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The Delhi Walla in the flood-hit Bihar.[Pictures and text by Mayank Austen Soofi]I spent a week volunteering in relief efforts in flooded regions of Bihar.Beside drowning, disappearances and death, one of Bihar’s worst-ever floods has, ironically, also brought good tidings in the life of at least four children whom I met during my volunteer work in two camps. Better than homeThe two-year-old Mr Bishal Kumar looks like a typical BBC-CNN disaster survivor you could have seen on a TV telecast beamed live from Rwanda, Mogadishu or Bihar – blank eyes, vacant face and a swollen belly, courtesy malnutrition. Mr Kumar’s mother died just as he

GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The Delhi Walla volunteers in flood hit Bihar.[Pictures and text by Mayank Austen Soofi]I spent a week volunteering in relief efforts in flooded regions of Bihar.I’m told that the people of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states and also one of its most beautiful, are used to man-made tragedies. This flood happened because someone up there in the government failed to provide for the maintenance of the dam in neighboring Nepal. So, cracks appeared over the years. Those who should have been alarmed did not care. Fast forward to August, 2008 when the monsoon lashed the land as usual. The rain fell, the dam’s walls