City Landmark – Kake Da Hotel is History Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - July 15, 2010July 18, 20106 The legendary eatery downs shutters. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opened in 1931, the legendary Kake Da Hotel in Municipal Market, Connaught Place, shut down on July 12, 2010. The next day the window face of the eatery, popular with the city’s carnivores looking for buttery, delicious and affordable non-vegetarian dishes, was showing this banner - “The shop is closed due to unfortunate circumstances.” The calls to the owners went unanswered. The owner of a neighbouring eatery, with a similar-sounding name, hinted, on condition of anonymity, at some “family dispute.” A necessary entry in Delhi-based food websites, one blogger, Shiva, described his Kake experience in these words: “I ordered chicken curry and rotis. The Nepali guy was serving with a
City Monument – Chausanth Khamba, Nizamuddin Basti Monuments by The Delhi Walla - July 14, 2010July 14, 20103 [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Beautiful and ignored. The most beautiful of all buildings in the congested Nizamuddin Basti, it is also the most ignored. Most visitors to this 14th century village, named after a sufi saint, head straight to the saint’s shrine. A few are likely to notice Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib’s tomb that lies on the left of the principal street. Hidden behind this mausoleum is the marbled Chausanth Khamba (circa 1624), the rare Jehnagir-era monument in Delhi, so well-preserved that it does not look old. Built by Mirza Aziz Kokaltash, a foster brother of Emperor Akbar, Chaunsath Khamba is so named because 64 pillars are said to support its roof. You will, however, count only till 36. These
Who Do You Think You Are – Ramchandar Yadav, Government Servant General by The Delhi Walla - July 12, 2010July 12, 20101 [Interview and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla was walking down the Ring Road, near Bikaji Cama Place, when he approached a man. Who are you? What are you doing here? I’m Ramchandar Yadav. I’m waiting for customers. I’m an auto-driver. An auto walla? Why do you folks always overcharge? Why don’t you people run by the meter? Some auto wallas are dishonest but some are very good. Where do you have to go? I will not charge you extra. Since how long are you driving autos? I came to Delhi in 1987 and bought an auto in ’90. But this is not I wanted to do. Then what? I wanted to be a government servant. I wanted to serve my people… Serving the people! People want to
Dateline Connaught Place – CP Goes Grassy General Hangouts Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - July 11, 2010July 11, 20105 The greenification of the British-era district. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Is this the new look Connaught Place (CP)? The other day The Delhi Walla was walking in A Block, Inner Circle, expecting to see the usual sights – dug up earth, scaffoldings, barricades and construction labourers. There was all that but there was also saw this green patch of land. A labourer said that the grass was planted in mid-June. Since 2009, Connaught Place is in the middle of a major renovation, which is being undertaken by New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). To impress the visitors of 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, this British-built commercial district is being made to recapture its earlier grandeur. The old photographs of CP, however,
Mission Delhi – Noor Bano, Lodhi Road Divider Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - July 10, 2010July 10, 20102 One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Turning to her left, she quietly listens to the ear-splitting roar of an incoming Blueline bus. The bus goes away but there is no silence. Cars are driving down one after another on her right. Noor Bano, 58, is, however, not looking harassed. She smiles at The Delhi Walla. I met her on the divider of the Lodhi Road. Being homeless, sleeping on pavements, wearing the same clothes continuously for a month… no one willingly choose to live such a life. But the grey-haired Ms Bano is fine with the deal. “It’s ok,” she says. “I’m used to it.” For more than twenty years, Ms Bano
Photo Essay – Sky Watching, Monsoon Season Nature Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - July 8, 2010July 8, 20103 The natural colors. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] In the monsoon, the most beautiful thing to look for are not the rains but the sky. After a heavy shower, the clouds scatter but the wetness lingers in the air. Not sure of itself, the sky doesn’t know if it needs to be blue, orange, pink, maroon, or if it’s dusk, black. The Delhi Walla discovered it one evening, which followed a rainy afternoon. Hint of pink? Shades of blue? Green-filtered Wire-studded Orange horizon? Deep like the sea Blessed with blue Like a painting
City Food – Butter Chicken, Moti Mahal Restaurant Food by The Delhi Walla - July 7, 2010July 7, 20105 The made-in-Delhi dish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] If Delhiites are sometimes called fat, aggressive and lascivious, then butter chicken must share a part of the blame. It originated in the 1950s at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Daryaganj, a neighborhood skirting the Walled City. Famed for their tandoori chicken, the cooks there used to recycle the leftover chicken juices in the marinade trays by adding butter and tomato. Once this sauce was tossed around with tandoor-cooked chicken pieces, and butter chicken was born. The dish appealed to Delhiites and was quickly lapped up by the rest of the country, and the world. Today, eating butter chicken in Moti Mahal is like reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play’s dialogues have lent so
City Hangout – National Archives of India, Janpath Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - July 3, 2010August 2, 20104 Delhi's best kept secret. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is no reason for this treasure tucked at the Capital’s heart to remain rundown and unexplored. As the storeroom of the non-current records of the Indian government, the National Archives of India (NAI), in Janpath, has thousands of rare old books, documents and lithographs piled up on various floors. Anyone with a passing interest in India’s political and cultural past can produce best-selling history books by hanging out here. While researching here for his book The Last Mughal: the fall of a dynasty (Delhi 1857) , author William Dalrymple discovered previously unexamined manuscripts that present the Indian perspective of the 1857 mutiny. “All the Urdu research for the book was
City Life – One Year of Legalised Gay Sex Culture Life Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - July 2, 2010July 3, 20105 Celebrations in Jantar Mantar. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the new Delhi. It happened in public. Men kissed men. Women hugged women. And cops just watched. On the evening of July 2, 2010, a year after the Delhi High Court’s landmark verdict that legalized gay sex, hundreds of people gathered in Jantar Mantar to celebrate the anniversary. The High Court had overturned the Section 377 of the Indian penal code, a relic from the colonial-era. It was party mood in Jantar Mantar. People were cheering, singing and dancing. A few men were dressed in sarees. Some were wearing t-shirts bearing provocative images (two London bobbies kissing), or words ("Unfuck the world"). The curious bystanders watched these happy people as
Sign of the Times – Terror Attack in Data Darbar, Lahore’s Sufi Shrine Faith General Photo Essays Travel by The Delhi Walla - July 2, 2010July 2, 20104 Requiem for the dead. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] On the night of July 1, 2010, three suicide bombers struck in quick succession at the Sufi shrine of Data Ganj Baksh, or Data Darbar, in Lahore, Pakistan. 35 people died, 175 were injured. The Delhi Walla considers the courtyard of this dargah as his home. I have spent a night there. May the loved ones of the dead find comfort in Daata Saheb's love. Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula Maula Mere Maula