Mission Delhi – Shankar, Matia Mahal Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 17, 2009September 19, 201411 One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Matia Mahal Bazaar. Midnight. Shutters down. Looking up at the delicate latticework of Old Delhi balconies, he suddenly turns back and stands facing the Jama Masjid. “It’s awe-inspiring,” says Shankar, looking at South Asia’s biggest mosque, built by Mughal emperor Shahjahan. “It’s more a symbol of power than spirituality and yet, when I go inside, I feel calm,” he says, requesting that his family name not be used for this portrait. As someone who has seen Vienna, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Budapest, Benares, Lahore, Ladakh, Isfahan, Kashkar, Samarkand, Shanghai, Srinagar, Marrakech, Damascus, Beirut and Ankara, Shankar says, “There are a million cities in Delhi… that’s what I love about it.” But he is not blind to its muck. “The place is dirty and that troubles me, but I can also look beyond to see its beauty.” Very often, late in the night, this 27-year-old takes out his bike and rides either to the Walled City, or to a low-income neighbourhood such as Govindpuri. “I’m not romantic about poverty,” he says, “but I guess that world is more real.” Stopping at a cigarette stall, Shankar starts talking to the vendor in Urdu. Turning to The Delhi Walla, he again switches into his slangy Hindi. “Ghazab hai yaar (It’s amazing, buddy),” he says. “Dilli mein lutf hain (Delhi is so much fun). I have no words for it.” Surprising, because he also speaks fluent German, his mother being Austrian. “Mummy came to Dharamshala (a North Indian hill town famous for its Tibetan exiles) as a tourist when she was 28 and met this sadhu 30 years her senior,” Shankar says. “They fell in love, married and had children.” The sadhu, who belonged to the Nath sect and so was allowed to marry, died when his son was four and his daughter six. Shankar’s mother set up a health care centre for the area’s villagers and sent the boy to a Benares school. At 18, he left for Vienna. “Look at those lampshades hanging from the wires,” Shankar says, pointing to an alley off the main Matia Mahal street. “Old Delhi is so alive. It’s not like those towns in Europe that have become bereft of life. It is not a museum piece. It is living.” In Vienna, Shankar lived in Landstrasse, a bourgeois neighbourhood with lots of churches and 19th century apartments. Standing at one corner of Chitli Qabar Chowk, this half-white man with long hair and light-brown eyes grows nostalgic about the Austrian spring: “Vienna comes alive then. Girls run around, showing deep cleavages, boys flaunt their muscles and the parks are full with lovers.” As the season ends, the city shrinks back to eight months of restraint and decorum. People walk hurriedly. Nobody talks. “In Vienna, I always missed Delhi,” he says, “but sometimes it gets too much here and then I leave for my mother’s home in the mountains.” Two Walled City romeos pass by, singing a Bollywood song. Shankar joins the chorus even as their voice fades along with their footsteps. “You can’t think of this in Europe,” he says. While he had his base in Vienna, Shankar spent more time conducting European group tours in South Asia, including Delhi. “After living in Europe, I looked at this city with different eyes,” he says. “You know, the unpredictability, the thousands of small things that are not spectacular but beautiful in their own way, such as… see, these people having chai on the street side, talking together… you don’t see that warmth in the West.” Shankar’s father went once to his mother’s continent and stayed for three years, waiting for her to finish her graduation degree. “In photographs, he looks like an archetypical Indian holy man with his dhoti, kurta, pagdi and rudraksh mala,” he says. “In school, I was sometimes ashamed of him. Other boys’ fathers were engineers and doctors, but mine was a sadhu.” At the next corner, in Sir Syed Ahmad Khan street, the scent of roasting kebabs makes Shankar pause. Ordering seekhs with roomali rotis, he says, “Something happens when I see kebabs being skewered upon these glowing coals. I feel some ancient tribal call within myself as if I were a Muslim in my last birth.” Shankar’s father was a runaway child from the Himalayas. “Babaji once sold vegetables in this city, in Kashmere Gate. For some time he also worked in a dhaba,” he says. “He was also a folk singer, and you know, singers are always lovers.” Shankar is also in love. Later this week, his Sri Lankan girlfriend is joining him in Delhi. They plan to live in the city for a few months, not sure what they will do. “I feel sad and angry at the ruthlessness of the rich and the appalling conditions that most people in the city have to bear,” says Shankar. “I want to do something meaningful.” Before that, Shankar, who is temporarily staying with his mother’s friend in south Delhi’s Anand Niketan, must find an apartment. “I’ve discovered a room in Mehrauli and the window opens to Jahaz Mahal,” he says referring to a ruin. “I hope I’ll get it.” [This is the third portrait of the Mission Delhi project] 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. FacebookX Related Related posts: Mission Delhi – Tasleem Bibi, Matia Mahal Mission Delhi – Katto, Matia Mahal Mission Delhi – Khalil Ahmed, Matia Mahal Mission Delhi – Mobeen, Matia Mahal Mission Delhi – Rajesh Tiwari, Matia Mahal
Thankyou for taking us so deep into the life of a person. Mayank, me and my husband daily look forward to what you will write next on your wonderful blog and we are really fixated by your Delhi portraits. Thank you so much for making us better understand the underlying layers of this city.
I do not agree with Shankar. Europe is warm and people are friendlier. I have traveled in India and can’t say the same about it.
I agree that people in India don’t really seem friendly at first glance but they are undoubtedly more hospitable and warmer than the people in the West when you approach them or talk to them (I live in Europe, Amsterdam to be precise). I may sound a bit ambiguous but in my opinion majority of people in India, especially in the big cities don’t seem to be contented with their lives as they are running a rat-race; moreover the socio-economic-situation in India isn’t something to make people be happier about their lives, let alone being friendly to foreigners or tourists. People in India are used to comparing themselves with others because of the huge disparities in the society which make majority of them live in a self created bubble of hatred and enviousness towards anything or anyone who – in their minds – is better off financially or otherwise. What I have noticed on my visits to India is that people give you a very dry look which certainly doesn’t seem friendly but rather frightening to a point where you start looking for a reason within yourself (I am Indian but have travelled to Ambala, Jalandhar, Ludiana, Amritsar, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore etc.). I don’t know why but this is my observation and being a girl I have always found it to be so discomforting as if people want to attack you with their eyes for something you didn’t do or meant to do. Now, this observation might seem a generalization but I think, if you are amongst like-minded people in India, you won’t feel annoyed as such. India is made up of contrasts, which is a beauty of that country IMO.
Mayank.. I never comment on your blog but here I wanted to put my appreciation for this unique yet simple story. thanks..If you remember..Gajendra Singh Bhati
@ monthere is no doubdt that india for a girl is very different. specially small town were they are not used to girls being independent. so you cant just roam the streets like this guy
Shankar is fortunate. He is living a lovely life. And what an interesting parentage! has he got that apartment in Mehrauli.
Shankar is reflecting the world he experiences – as we should all do. Capturing article.Greetings from Europe and I agree it’s really cold : – 13°C today to be precise. Nobody would want to eat kebab outside in this weather 🙂
Shankarji aap kahan ho? Parvati ke pas ao na.. plsss…u r a drop-dead-hunk..Irresistable. Mayank gr8 article as usual and keep lookin out for gr8 pesonalities…U rock! GossiperXOXO