City Hangout – Maulana Aagan Chaikhana, Mohalla Kabristan

City Hangout – Maulana Aagan Chaikhana, Mohalla Kabristan

Lovely and sad. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Two blackened kettles, two ceiling fans, some wooden benches, a few plastic chairs and a roughly carved pillar makes it one of Old Delhi’s most charming chaikhanas, or tea houses….

City Moment – Song of the Road, Aurangzeb Marg

City Moment – Song of the Road, Aurangzeb Marg

Late night melody. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One late night The Delhi Walla is walking down Aurangzeb Marg, a boulevard in central Delhi. Named after a Mughal emperor, it is lined with bungalows of Very Important People,…

City Monuments – Tombs, Domes & a Bridge, Lodhi Garden

City Monuments – Tombs, Domes & a Bridge, Lodhi Garden

Ruins in a landscaped setting. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Lodhi Garden in central Delhi is famous for its flowers, trees, birds and sloping lawns but before the garden there were the tombs. Built by the Sayyids…

Hauz Khas Series - A House in the Village, Chapter 3

Hauz Khas Series – A House in the Village, Chapter 3

Life in Delhi’s prettiest neighbourhood. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Late September morning. The shadows are cold. I enter into a part of the Hauz Khas ruins that is not frequented by tourists. May be they are here….

City Life - Family Album, Old Delhi

City Life – Family Album, Old Delhi

The new Old Delhi. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In a house on Pahari Rajaan hill, stairs lead to a courtyard. Here a new flight of stairs passes a kitchen and leads to another courtyard. More stairs, another…

INFIDELITIES@The Delhi Walla – A Well-built Dusky MBA Student Seeks a Female

INFIDELITIES@The Delhi Walla – A Well-built Dusky MBA Student Seeks a Female

Make your life smart and sexy. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] I’m a 21 year old man who shuttles between Delhi and Bombay. A science graduate, I’m in the 2nd year of my MBA from a top B-school. I like…

City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Bazaar Sitaram

City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Bazaar Sitaram

Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man in Bazaar Sitaram, a grocery and vegetable market in the Old Quarter. He was wearing a black cap, white kurta, white dhoti and…

City Library – Ira Pande’s Books, Noida

City Library – Ira Pande’s Books, Noida

A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One rainy afternoon, The Delhi Walla knocked at the door of writer and editor Ira Pande. Now 60, Mrs Pande shares her ground floor apartment in Sector 93, Noida, a…

City Guide - Mao on Surviving Delhi

City Guide – Mao on Surviving Delhi

China’s God on Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The news from Delhi is bad. On September 2011, a bomb blast killed 12 people outside the Delhi High Court, close to the India Gate monument. The same night…

INFIDELITIES@The Delhi Walla - Poet-Philosopher Male Seeks a Female with Fantasies

INFIDELITIES@The Delhi Walla – Poet-Philosopher Male Seeks a Female with Fantasies

Make your life smart and sexy. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] I am 27-year-old male in Delhi, originally from Bangalore. I like reading, poetry, philosophy, movies and music. Love writing, have a novel that is half-finished and will be ready…