The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Let's meet next year.[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; picture by Solveig Bang]On the last day of 2008, I'll share one of my best and a quintessential Delhi day with the readers of The Delhi Walla. But first: Happy New Year.1pm: Khan Market. Hey-hi to a friend at Café Turtle. I ask for carrot juice; she orders sweet lime soda.1.37pm: Café Turtle is expensive. To Sidewok for lunch. The friend is the sugar daddy today. She'll pay. We have dim sum, shredded lamb, Chinese greens and steamed rice.2.25pm: Strolling in Lodhi

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A former Delhi-based journo writes his first book on homeland Kashmir.[Text by Sumaira Samad; picture by Inigo Arza]This is the memoir of young Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer, recounting his youth in the troubled valley during the ’80s and ’90s. A harrowing look at the political strife and armed conflict that has torn Kashmir apart over the last 30 years, the book is personal. The people, places and events Peer describes are his parents, neighbours and friends. Yet, despite this intimacy, Peer’s narrative has no polemic, and sentimentality, self-pity, melodrama take

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.How do they cope.[Text and picture of Ms Anima Dungdung by Mayank Austen Soofi]Delhi is not exactly a gay-friendly city. Here life is complicated not just for the gay person but also for his parents, siblings and… the maid.After spending three decades in expat households, Jharkhand's Ms Aneema Dungdung thought she had seen the world. She hadn't. On May 1, 2006, she got new masters in Defence Colony. Two American men. Ms Dungdung presumed them to be friends who slept in the same room. "I was happy since I would

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.On the footsteps of an unsual band of carol singers.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]The Aravali hills are alive with the sound of Christmas carols even though the D-day is still two days away. In the rarefied air of Jawaharlal Lal University (JNU), a tune of guitar-twanged Jingle bells, jingle bells... is soaring up in the air. It is floating somewhere over the Staff Academy Center, a smart brick structure tucked deep into the bowels of the JNU campus. An incredible sight here – a few of Delhi's most

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A south Delhi landmark is coming to west Delhi.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Browsing at the Bahrisons will no longer necessarily mean you are in Khan Market. “In January, 2008, we are opening a branch in Rajouri Garden Main Market,” says Mr Anuj Bahri, the bookseller. On the face of it, there’s nothing new for a south Delhi establishment to spread to other parts of the city. PVR cinemas, for instance, did that by opening its first not-in-South-Delhi multiplex at Naraina in 2001. Five years later, Basant Lok’s Punjabi

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Seeking private spaces in public places.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]The aftermath of Bombay terrorist attack revealed something curious. The destruction of a public place was mourned as the loss of a private space. I'm talking about Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel.“Taj was my second home,” wailed many a Bombay Walla. To them, the lobby was their drawing room and the hotel, a home.What about Delhi? Which public sanctuaries here have grown so endearing to people, over the years, that they feel as if they possess them like

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A case of mistaken identities.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]On the morning of September (nooo! November!) 27, 2008, while Bombay was being held hostage by terrorists, I talked to a few eminent Delhi wallas. One of them was sitarist Anoushka Shankar. That’s what I thought. That’s what the name I had stored in my mobile phone address book.The next day after publishing that article, a reader claiming to be Ms Anoushka Shankar, left a comment on this blog saying,” I'm Anoushka Shankar and I never said these things.”Impossible. I

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Exodus from the Walled City.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]The story goes that Old Delhi suffered just one exodus when Partition forced many Muslims to leave for Pakistan. But the slow flight since then seems to have gone unrecorded. I have heard stories of genteel Old Delhi families leaving their Walled City mansions for Yamuna-paar addresses. Isn't that shocking?How could you willfully renounce the thrill of living in Purani Dilli? So it is. I know the publisher of a legendary Urdu magazine who left his grand haveli near Jama

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Inside Delhi’s wildly eclectic bookstore.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]This place has attitude. While other bookshops sex up their appeal by setting in-house cafés, customers here can’t even carry a softy. And no mobile phones, please. In Fact & Fiction, rules are rules. Thank you very much. Delhi’s most eclectic bookstore faces the Capital’s most popular hangout — Priya cinema in Basant Lok Market. On entering, try not to bother Mr Ajit Vikram Singh, the owner. He is perhaps browsing on his Compaq laptop or reading The New York