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.Delhi’s first LGBT friendly salon.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Dressing up as a drag queen becomes a tad easier and pricier in the Capital. In July, 2009, the city got its first openly LGBT-friendly unisex salon in Hauz Khas Market. “We charge Rs 3,000 for dolling up a man,” says Mr Sameer Mehta, the proprietor of NYC who runs the salon with his partner Mr Mike. “We opened around seven months ago but ‘came out’ as soon as the Delhi High Court scrapped Section 377,” says Mr Mehta. To

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.Beauty as seen in a sufi shrine.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]One humid Saturday afternoon I was at the dargah of sufi saint Sarmad Shahid. It is in Old Delhi, just outside Jama Masjid’s gate no. 3. The red-walled shrine was empty, save a few pilgrims. There was a man, with a beard and a skull cap, praying in front of Sarmad's tomb. Just then a young woman appeared in a sari and stood by his side. With the sindoor spread length-wise on the parting of her hair,

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 must-visit for book lovers.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]If there were no Indian Partition, there would have been no Kuldeep Booksellers. Started by the son of a Partition refugee from what is now Pakistan, this hole-in-a-wall, in this Daryaganj backlane, could shame South Delhi’s most hyped bookstores. Get here quickly before anyone else takes away this entire stack of first edition Churchills, or that first edition of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, or this rare set of hardbound Lincoln books, or this pile of automobile

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.One afternoon in Delhi.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]It was over in half an hour. In the late afternoon of July 23rd, 2009, clouds suddenly gathered over the Delhi sky, a dust storm followed, trees fell and then a furious downpour drenched almost the entire city, which had been reeling under a dry spell due to a disappointing monsoon season.Ms Marina Bang, a South African national who spends her hours writing a book at her rented bungalow in Jor Bagh, was pleasantly surprised. She and her two friends immediately

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.The city down the decades.[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi]The Delhi Walla discovered these grainy images in the archives of LIFE magazine. Nothing is known about the years when these pictures were taken. But the life seen in these frames are proof enough that much has changed in this city down the decades. Once when the 2 Up Kalka Mail would steam into Delhi through the old Yamuna bridge, your grandfather would turn right and see the grand Metcalfe House. Now, when the electricity-powered superfast Kalka Shatabdi Express zooms into the

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.Weekend getaway in Rajasthan.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]In July, 2009, an online poll by Travel+Leisure magazine voted Udaipur, a Rajasthani lake town about a night’s train journey away from Delhi, as the “world’s best city for travellers.” Now, now, the credibility of online polls must always be taken with a barrel of salt. But The Delhi Walla, who spent a June weekend in Udaipur, could understand the sincerity of that poll. Yes, the city is pretty. Ditto, its people. But perhaps what makes Udaipur ‘best’, and entertaining, is

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.The Metro would change Delhi's face after a few more years - and accidents.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]A person does not belong to a place until he has someone dead under the ground. Does that apply to Delhi Metro, too? On the Sunday morning of July 12th, 2009, a pillar on the partially constructed Metro bridge in the tony GK-I suddenly collapsed killing six.This was not the first tragedy in the short history of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). On another Sunday, in 2008, a chunk of the

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. The ride of your life.[Pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Ranking somewhere between DTC buses and private cars in the social hierarchy of the city's traffic system, autos are an essential Delhi feature. The Delhi Walla asked Delhiites, both present and past, about their experiences with this Capital Necessity.Vaguely vulgarThis happened when I got into an auto after about eight years. It was dark and raining and the auto kept slowing down. Then on the deserted ridge road, the engine started spluttering. The driver turned around and looked at me meaningfully.

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.Taking things in stride.[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; the picture by Marina Bang was taken the evening before the doctor's diagnosis.]On 9.07am, July 7th, 2009, Dr. Gandhi in his sparse-looking clinic, tucked next to a Costa Coffee outlet, in Bengali Market, diagnosed me with chicken pox. Since it’s a highly contagious, air-borne disease, I’ve been grounded for at least ten days in my library in Nizamuddin Basti. At the time of writing this piece, my scalp, forehead, cheeks, nose, neck, chest, stomach, arms, back, palms, fingers, groin, balls, thighs, legs,

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.The silence of the tombs.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Outside is the usual Sadar Bazar chaos, and heat. Enter the green coloured gate and you step into calmness, and coolness. Amidst hundreds of tombs, clustered tightly on a rolling landscape, lays a mosque, a madrassa and the sufi shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Baqi Billah. Founder of the Naqshbandia silsila in the Indian sub-continent, Hazrat Billah was born in 16th century Kabul. After wandering through cities like Samarkand, Balkh, Lahore and Multan, he settled in Delhi to spread the deen.