Memo from Jantar Mantar – Killings in Lhasa, Unrest in Delhi General by The Delhi Walla - March 17, 2008December 30, 20106 Amidst the city's Tibetan citizens. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Red-robed lamas, apple-cheeked girls and the Tibetan flag. Also: fists, frowns, and slogans. In that side of the Himalayas, Chinese are killing Tibetans. Violence in Lhasa has left 80 dead. In this side, Tibetan refugees have gathered at Jantar Mantar, Delhi's Tian Mien square. Most are young born-in-India Tibetans whose parents and grand parents had escaped here after China invaded the Buddhist nation in 1959. Today these angry people are demanding freedom. But who will take them seriously? They don't have suicide bombers. Read me Free me Cry, my beloved country All together - young 'n' old Angry lamas Read me, again Here's how you can support Tibet's cause Please visit the online petition, 'We, the people of India,
Delhi Diary – No City for a Muslim General by The Delhi Walla - March 6, 200817 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Personal account of discrimination against Muslims[By Saif; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi is not the author's photograph]Finding an abode in Delhi is not easy, especially if you are a Muslim like me. A journalist in a blue-chip media company, I had been longing to get a calm, serene and clean place somewhere close to my office in south Delhi. I zeroed in on Sukhdev Vihar and rounded up property wallas there. Most of them left me in lurch after they got to know my (Muslim) name. People in Sukhdev Vihar, I was told, were not too eager to rent their houses to Muslims. Finally
Citizen Profile – A Coolie's Chronicle General by The Delhi Walla - March 3, 20081 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A porter's life in the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station.[as told to Mayank Austen Soofi; picture is also by him]Salam alaikum from Salim Khan. My days as coolie in the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station are always same. They begin with chai, biskut, and Dakshin Express. It arrives early morning at paach pachees (5:25) followed by Bangalore Rajdhani, Indore Intercity, Goa Express...At 10 pm, Taj Express returns from Gwalior. The day ends with the body aching in pain. I either rub sarson ka tel on my legs, or take brufen I carry in my pocket.It was ten years ago when I came to Delhi for the job
Neighbourhood – Majnu Ka Teela, The New Paharganj General by The Delhi Walla - February 28, 20083 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A new backpacker ghetto in town.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]A Tibetan refugee camp since the 1960s, Majnu ka Teela is emerging as the new Paharganj.This is odd. Unlike Delhi's original backpacker paradise, it flaunts no Hebrew graffiti or German bakeries. Here wrinkled momolas, and not Nigerian hash addicts, kill time sitting on pavement benches. Chummy uncles drink butter tea, not masala chai. CD shacks play Phurbu T Namgyal, not Ravi Shankar. While rosy-cheeked boys, fresh from Lhasa, smoke Marlboros in street corners.MT, as locals refer to it, used to be a popular dormitory neighborhood for Tibetan travellers. These were refugees settled in India
Dubai Diary – Dilli Door Ast,or Delhi is Far General by The Delhi Walla - February 23, 20083 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A Delhi girl finds a better life in the middle-eastern metropolis.[Text by Manika Dhama; she writes in Myriad Musings and More; picture of the author by Mayank Austen Soofi]I always knew that Delhi and I were going to have a long-distance relationship some day. It didn’t matter that I’d lived, studied and worked there for almost 12 years. That was the longest I’d stayed in any city. But I left the city last year in September. No, it wasn’t about Delhi and me. We were getting along just fine. It was just time to move on and I was more than ready to.When I finally
Profile – Raza Rumi, A Pakistani About Town General by The Delhi Walla - February 20, 2008February 11, 201516 A budding writer from Lahore visits the city of his beloved author.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]The ignorant Delhi wallas often view visiting Pakistanis as ISI agents or trouble-makers. Mr. Raza Rumi, a native of Lahore, is neither. He has no beard, no moustache. He never frowns, he smiles (actually, he smiles a lot). He has a sleek laptop, no Kalashnikov. Yet he set the city on fire. As Pakistan's celebrated blogger, he was invited by Jamia Millia Islamia University to speak on a seminar on the Urdu novelist Qurratulain Hyder. Mr. Rumi came, read, and well…conquered. Everyone loved his take on the late writer's enduring popularity in Pakistan. 'Passionate', 'heartfelt', and 'excellent' were some of the words used
"I Don't Like Delhi's Crotch-Grabbing, Foul-Mouthed Coarseness"-Exclusive Interview with Siddhartha Basu, India's No. 1 Quiz Master General by The Delhi Walla - February 20, 20081 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The iconic face of Indian TV sits down with The Delhi Walla.Calcutta-born Siddhatha Basu is widely recognized as father of television quiz shows in South Asia. Managing Director of Synergy Adlabs, he has produced TV classics like Quiz Time and Kaun Banega Crorepati. Mr. Basu lived in Delhi all these years but recently shifted to Bombay. The Delhi Walla badgered him on his life, wife, career, and just why (oh why) he ditched our Delhi.[This is the final of the three-part interview series Mr. Basu gave to Mayank Austen Soofi. In the first he compared lives in Bombay and Delhi. In the second he
City Secret – Afternoon Siesta, Hazrat Nizamuddin General by The Delhi Walla - February 17, 20082 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A retiring refuge in this noisy city.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]There are better islands in Delhi than your bedroom for a peaceful afternoon nap. Like the sufi shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.Reach around 2 pm. The prayer of Zuhr is over and Maghrib is about four hours away. No unnecessary crowd at this time. No awestruck visitors. No Lonely Planet tourists. No qawwals. No music. No noise. Only the devout. Here is your chance to be yourself.No one disturbs anyone (if you are in grief and weeping, you are left alone). It is tempting to immediately lie down and cushion yourself into the
Dateline Delhi – Taslima Nasreen in Town General by The Delhi Walla - February 14, 2008February 25, 201512 Arundhati Roy demands Indian citizenship for the exiled Bangladeshi author. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is not Dhaka. It is not even Kolkata. Ms. Taslima Nasreen, the Bangladeshi author who has been virtually put under house arrest by the Indian government, somewhere in Delhi, wants to go back home to Kolkata. She does not and is not made to feel at home in this city. But the government is eager to ship her abroad. Ms. Nasreen wonders why this country of one billion can’t add one more to its numbers. What innocence(!) She is too combustible for this country. She writes insulting things about Islam. She writes graphic details about her sex life. She writes all this rather badly and
Opinion – Jama Masjid in Danger General by The Delhi Walla - February 12, 20085 GO STRAIGHT TO CITY CLASSIFIEDS & CITY EVENTSGO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The sanctity of the ancient quarter is at risk.[Text by Sadia Dehlvi; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]There is a proposal to construct a swanky mall and a multilayered underground parking fifteen meters away from the steps of Jama Masjid. To create this four-basement structure the ground will have to be dug at least eighty feet. Digging of this scale is known to cause severe stress to surrounding buildings. Jama Masjid is built on a rocky hilltop called Bhojla Pahari. The plan is a nightmare. It brings traumatic memories of the Babri Masjid demolition that was a direct outcome of Hindu extremism. If the proposed underground