City Hangout – Basant Lok Market, South Delhi
Once it was happening. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dry fountain, broken benches, shoe shine boys, doped beggars, stray cows, and palmists making suspicious predictions. Don’t judge Basant Lok Market by its rundown look. In the heart of…
City Monument – Firuz Shah Kotla Ruins, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
The fifth city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Built as the citadel of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, along the banks of the Yamuna, this is now a ruin. Firuzabad, the fifth city of Delhi, once extended from Hauz Khas…
Photo Essay – In Search of Lost Time, Shahjahanabad
The black & white Delhi. [Text by Mayank Austen Soofi] A city is built of dreamed memories. More than three centuries have elapsed since the founding of Shahjahanabad on the banks of the Yamuna. Shahjahanabad today is a different country….
City Food – Julia Child Makes Chana Dal Gosht in Civil Lines
The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of Civil Lines, a genteel neighbourhood of bungalows and apartments in north Delhi. Passionate about writers like Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, George Bernard…
City Obituary – Zubeida Bano, Shahjahanabad
Death of a Delhiwalla. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Zubeida Bano, a cultured dweller of Shahjahanabad, died on August 9th, aged 72. The Delhi Walla had profiled her in the website’s Mission Delhi project. The arc of Ms…
City Moment – Street Lost & Regained, Nizamuddin Basti
The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is evening. The Delhi Walla is walking down the principal lane in Nizamuddin Basi, a 14th century village in central Delhi, named after a sufi saint. The street…
City Food – Roadside Chai, Around Town
King of brews. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] As Delhi acquires the trappings of a modern metropolis, the carts dedicated exclusively to serving tea are becoming fewer. But it is still possible to stop in the middle of…
City Life – Home Sweet Home, Ranjit Singh Road
Inside the walls. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One afternoon The Delhi Walla entered the home of Muhammed Rashid Khan. There is no doorbell because there is no door. Mr Khan, 40, lives with his wife and three…
City Library – Chandrahas Choudhury’s Books, Kalkaji
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One late evening The Delhi Walla knocked at the door of author Chandrahas Choudhury. In his 30s, Mr Choudhury lives on the second floor of a bungalow in Kalkaji, south…
City Monument – Khwaja Mir Dard’s Tomb, Near Zakir Husain College
The resting place of Delhi’s great poet-saint. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is one of Delhi’s most melancholic monuments. The tomb of Khwaja Mir Dard (1721-1785), an Urdu poet and a Sufi saint, is beautiful, but not…
Recent Comments