City Landmark – Kake Da Hotel is History
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,…
City Monument – Chausanth Khamba, Nizamuddin Basti
[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…
Who Do You Think You Are – Ramchandar Yadav, Government Servant
[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….
Dateline Connaught Place – CP Goes Grassy
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…
Mission Delhi – Noor Bano, Lodhi Road Divider
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…
Photo Essay – Sky Watching, Monsoon Season
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…
City Food – Butter Chicken, Moti Mahal Restaurant
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…
City Hangout – National Archives of India, Janpath
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…
City Life – One Year of Legalised Gay Sex
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…
Sign of the Times – Terror Attack in Data Darbar, Lahore’s Sufi Shrine
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…
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