City Culture – De Bhasar, Archbishop Makarios Marg Culture by The Delhi Walla - March 31, 2012March 31, 20124 The philosophy of nonsense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] ‘Rich Fucks.’ The Delhi Walla saw this calligraphy by an unknown Bhasarian artist in Archbishop Makarios Marg, a road in central Delhi named after the first President of the Republic of Cyprus. It is depicted on the boundary wall of Delhi Golf Club. The wall faces the bungalows of Golf Links, one of the city’s richest neighbourhoods. This is the fourth instance that I have come face-to-face with De Bhasar movement in Delhi. (Click here to view the first exhibit.) According to Wikipedia, De Bhasar or Bhasarism is a cultural movement that began in Nantes, France, during the post 9/11 Gulf War, reaching a tipping point between 2007 to 2009. The movement involves graphic
City Monument – Khooni Darwaza, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg Monuments by The Delhi Walla - March 30, 2012March 30, 20125 The home of headless ghosts. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Khooni Darwaza means ‘bloodied gateway’ and legend has it that blood drips from its ceilings during the monsoon. Built by Sher Shah Suri in 1540 it is in the in the middle of the four-lane Bahadurshah Zafar Marg connecting New and Old Delhi. It was originally named Kabuli Darwaza, when Kabul-bound caravans left the city through its arched entrance. The gateway, 15.5 m high, took its present name after the Mughals started displaying the heads of executed criminals from its battlements. Soon it became a popular place to hang the body parts of unwanted princes. Emperor Aurangzeb displayed his brother Dara Shikoh's head at the gate. Prince Dara was to succeed
City Hangout – National Science Center, Pragati Maidan Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - March 29, 2012March 30, 20122 Believe it or not. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A ball floating in air with no regard for gravity; a seat of nails actually comfortable to sit on. Discovering science at the National Science Center is fun. The learning is incidental and the exploration unending. Staircases lead up to more exhibition halls. Galleries open up more wonders – including a cave alive with the farting sound of dinosaurs – and an entire section devoted to replicas of these prehistoric giants. Thankfully there is no smell. Beware of the maze of mirrors. You may get lost in their reflections. Get inside a giant kaleidoscope to see multiple reflections of yourself. Walk into a cabin to freeze your shadow. Those tormented by
City Event – Pakistani Poet Zehra Nigah, Recital in Attic, Connaught Place General by The Delhi Walla - March 27, 2012March 27, 20121 [Photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An Evening with Urdu poet Zehra Nigah on Thursday, 29 March 2012, 6.30 pm, at The Attic, The Regal Building, Connaught Place. The Karachi-based poet will recite her poetry. Zehra Nigah is a legend in Pakistan. In India she is an eagerly awaited figure on the mushaira (Urdu poetry recitals) circuit, especially the two annual Indo-Pak mushairas in early spring. According to the English-language translator of her poems, Delhi-based author Rakhshanda Jalil, Ms Nigah's poetry is about the compulsions and compromises of being a woman and a poet. Ms Jalil says," Amidst friends and family, she is equally well known as a raconteur par excellence and a qissa-go. She talks as she writes: with grace and poise and
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians – XIV, Indian Coffee House Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - March 26, 2012April 17, 20131 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] ATTENTION: Due to unavoidable circumstances, the 15th meeting of The Delhi Proustians will be held on 2 April 2012. The inconvenience is regretted. Today is the 14th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Monday evening for an hour we read his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. It is 7 pm and The Delhi Walla is alone. I’m nearing a milestone. Swann’s Way, the first volume, has three parts. If I concentrate, I might finish Combray, the first part. Thus would I often lie until morning, dreaming of the old days at Combray, of my melancholy and wakeful evenings there, of other days
Photo Essay – Sunset Hour in Delhi Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - March 25, 20121 The city softened. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] When the sun is going down, you must leave the company of other people to be with yourself. Go and stand under the Barakhamba traffic light in Connaught Place. Look towards N-Block. The sky is streaked with shades of orange. The white corridors and balconies of the Middle Lane are merging with the gathering blackness. The pedestrians standing around you, waiting for the light to turn green so that they can cross the road, are losing their three-dimensional solidity and turning to papery shadows. The buses and cars are moving in a slow motion. You feel like being inside a surreal art-house movie. Or, go to Humayun’s Tomb and watch the sunset standing
City Food – Egg Dosa, North Campus Food by The Delhi Walla - March 23, 2012March 23, 20129 A strange dish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Really, it oughtn’t to be allowed, to make dosa like that. The South Indian staple is a crepelike pancake of fermented lentil-rice flour batter stuffed with mustard seed-flecked potato mush. Accompanied with mild coconut chutney and fiery sambhar curry, masala dosa should be crisp, brittle and thin. What if the same potato mush is filled inside an omelet, with sambhar and coconut chutney as side dishes? In the South Indian Café, an open-air eatery in the North Campus of Delhi University, this fabrication is called egg dosa (Rs 40). In successful instances of fusion cuisine experiments, flavours from different schools of cooking unite to give something new and delicious. But in egg dosa, egg and
City Notice – The Delhi Walla in the Guardian General by The Delhi Walla - March 22, 2012March 22, 20125 It’s a distinction. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] In March 2012, The Delhi Walla was discovered by the Guardian, one of the world’s most respected English newspapers. In a cover feature called ‘Tales of the City', the daily said: “From Delhi to New York, there are local bloggers opening their cities up to the world.” The Delhi Walla was featured with five blogs based in New York City, Cardiff (Wales), Isle of Wright (England), Portland (USA) and Ottawa (Canada) respectively. Here’s the link. Here’s the complete text, written by Patrick Barkham, author of The Butterfly Isles - A Summer in Search of Our Emperors and Admirals and a feature writer for the Guardian. "There is a rich pile of hyperlocal blogs run by dedicated
City Series – Stones of Jama Masjid – II, Shahjahanabad General by The Delhi Walla - March 20, 2012March 20, 20120 Delhi’s grand Friday mosque. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “How can anybody live in this place?” This is the first thing that a new visitor to Shahjahanbad might want to know. The honking. The beggars. The loosely-hanging electric cables. The open drains. The stench. The filth. The traffic. And the grand mosque. As Shahjahanabad’s signature monument, Jama Masjid stands in grand isolation; its refined aesthetics shows no affinity to the disharmony of surrounding structures. Yet, it does not look out of place. The principal street of Matia Mahal bazaar culminates in the mosque’s south-facing entrance. This is the location of Gate No. 1. While walking up the street, the gateway becomes visible only after reaching the Champion Bakery. Until this point
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians – XIII, Indian Coffee House Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - March 19, 2012April 17, 20132 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 13th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Monday evening for an hour we read his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. It is 7 pm and The Delhi Walla is with Anshul Kumar Pandey, an undergraduate student in Zakir Husain College. “I usually read non-fiction,” says Mr Pandey. “This is my first attempt at fiction.” And he is attempting Lost Time, a novel notorious for its long length and dense passages. “I went to buy Proust yesterday at the Om Book Shop in PVR Saket complex but it’s too expensive,” he says. “I have a spare copy. If you