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…
The Biographical Dictionary of Delhi – Dr Yunus Jaffery, b. Old Delhi, 1930
The immortal love of a Persian scholar. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An heir of Old Delhi nobility, he speaks classical Persian as his first language. Dr Yunus Jaffery, a Persian scholar, was described as an “archetypal Delhi-wallah”…
City Season – October Optimism, Around Town
The end of summer. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Mid-morning. Kasturba Gandhi Marg: the biker in a long sleeved shirt. Safdarjang’s Tomb: the stones of the monument no longer burn the bare feet. A bungalow in Green Park:…
Photo Essay – The Doors, Around Town
The noble entrances. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The entrance doors of a few houses and mosques and monuments in old parts of Delhi such as Mehrauli, Nizamuddin Basti and Matia Mahal have an artistic character. They add…
City Travel – Nainital, North of Delhi
In search of lost time. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] At a height of 1,938m, giddy tourists gratify themselves by boating on the lake, riding the ropeway trolley and shopping on Mall Road. That’s Nainital, the hill station…
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
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
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…
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