The Delhi Walla Books – Now in Japan
Delhi to Tokyo
[By Mayank Austen Soofi]
The four-volume The Delhi Walla series have become a constant fixture in Delhi’s bookstores. Being its author and photographer, I like to believe that they are considered as a serious attempt to interpret the city. So, it’s very hurtful when some people I know dismiss the volumes by casually referring to them as ‘booklets’. Once, a friend of a friend called them ‘pamphlets’.
Therefore I was pleasantly surprised when one The Delhi Walla reader pointed out that a Tokyo-based style magazine called Pen has mentioned my booklets on its pages. It’s just a few lines, but look at my smile(!)
However, I cannot determine if Pen has written good things or bad things about The Delhi Walla pamphlets. I’m enrolling in a Japanese language course.
You are now officially the most famous Delhi Walla in Japan. Maybe even other countries. You have brought so many hidden secrets to light that foreigners wouldn’t know where to go for free without your books. For example, the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. They should rename it Mayank Austen Park because of all the foreigners you sent there.
This was priceless.
Congrats Mayank.. you Rock 🙂
Mayank,
Congratulations! and you can use translate.google.com rather than enroll for courses :-).
yup..use google translate n congrats!!
As a Japanse Delhi-lover, it’s so nice to see you in a Japanese magazine, not just on your website!!
Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. Here I would like to share an English translation I made below (and also I input the original article, in case of a Google translation, or of your future endeavour to study the language!?).
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[Photo Captions]
左：マヤンク・オースティン・スーフィー。カースト、宗教が特定できないペンネームにした。下：著書はハーパー・コリンズ刊。各199 INR
(Left: Mayank Austen Soofi, a caste/religion-nonspecific pen name that he chose. Below: His books have been published by HarperCollins Publishers. Each volume costs Rs.199.)
[Headline]
頭の中で、デリー探訪に出かけよう。
(“Let’s go for an exploration of Delhi, in your mind!”)
[Article Text]
ライターで写真家のマヤンク・オースティン・スーフィーは、地元っ子の視点からデリーの日常を捉える若手だ。そんな彼の集大成となる著書『The Delhi Walla（デリーっ子）』が完成した。
『食べ物編』『娯楽編』『史跡編』『ポートレート編』の4冊シリーズで、彼がデリーをくまなく歩き回って撮り下ろした魅力的な写真にあふれ、添えられた文章も読み応えあり。ずっと手元に置いておきたいガイド本であると同時に、新旧を織り混ぜたデリーをすみずみまで歩いた気分にさせる写真集としても、非常にクオリティーの高い本となっている。通りいっぺんではわからない、人々のナマの暮らしが詰まった一冊。軽く持ち運びしやすいサイズ感もうれしい。
Mayank Austen Soofi is a young writer and photographer who grasps people’s daily lives in Delhi from a local’s perspective. Such works of his have been compiled into a book series titled “The Delhi Walla”.
The 4 volumes of “Food”, “Hangouts”, “Monuments” and “Portraits” are filled with attractive photographs which the author took when exploring all over Delhi, and the accompanied essays are really good reads. As guide books which you would feel like keeping around, and also as photo books which would make you feel as if you had walked throughout the city in a mixture of old and new aspects, the volumes are of greatly good quality. A work full of the city folk’s lively lives which you could not find out on a superficial visit. A welcome feeling to its easily portable size of the books as well.
Thank you for the translation! Good to know the books haven’t been called pamphlets.
oh ho,Congratulations ji
@Japani Delhi Walla: Arigato … shimashe for translation 😀
@MAS: Balle Balle, Oye Balle Balle… bhai tu chaa gya ..shava shava … burrahhhhhhhhhhhhhh