City Food – Rooh Afza, Shahjahanabad Food by The Delhi Walla - August 30, 2012August 30, 20127 Old Delhi's national drink. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is not a cola and it is not endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan – it has no brand ambassador. It also lacks ready-to-drink convenience. Most people born after liberalisation may not even know its name. But now 40 years older than Independence, it is still going strong. Rooh Afza, the scarlet-hued refresher, might today have become as obscure as any dilapidated tomb in Old Delhi where it was founded in 1907. But this classic summer sherbet, or sharbat, has survived Partition, the licence-permit raj, economic reforms, carbonated drinks, and tetra pack juices. An old newspaper ad of this drink says, “When the motor car was on its way
City Travel – Musée d’Orsay, Paris Travel by The Delhi Walla - August 29, 2012August 29, 20129 The Delhi Walla in the French capital. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla is spending his days in Paris walking down the streets, stopping at cafes for a 1 euro coffee and browsing for English-language novels in second-hand bookstores. This is the first time I’m discovering that Delhi is not the center of the world. There are other cities, equally rich in histories, which are more beautiful and more civilized. In Paris, I examine the faces of people to find out what goes on in their mind as they look at me. To them, most probably, I’m just a brown man from Asia -- may be from Bangladesh. They would never know that I’m a writer from India who
City Travel – Jardin du Palais Royal, Paris Travel by The Delhi Walla - August 27, 20127 The Delhi Walla in the French capital. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A family is having baguette and cheese. A middle-aged woman is jogging with her dog. A girl is kissing a boy. A young bride in white is walking with her man in a black suit. A pair of ‘sensitive boys’ is running together. The pigeons look better fed than their cousins in Delhi. The Delhi Walla spends his first day in Paris in the shade of Jardin du Palais Royal. Two symmetrical rows of trees make the garden. The benches are of wood and iron. All the trees reach to an equal height; their leaves look manicured to the same dimensions. The Louvre and the Seine is close, and the
City Notice – The Delhi Proustians XXVIII, Paris Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - August 26, 2012April 17, 20134 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The 28th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust, will take place on 27 August 2012. Venue: Outside Shakespeare & Co bookstore, Paris. Time: 7 pm. Where Shakespeare & Co, 37 Rue de la Bucherie, 750005 Paris Nearest Metro Station New Sant-Michel Time 7 pm Postcards from Paris 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
City Monument – Qutub Minar Complex, Mehrauli Monuments by The Delhi Walla - August 24, 2012August 24, 20122 379 steps to heaven. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Size matters, sometimes adversely. Lightning has twice damaged the Qutub Minar, India’s tallest stone tower. This five-storeyed red and buff sandstone tower, with marble trimmings higher up, massaged the ego of three early Islamic rulers: Qutubuddin Aibak who laid the foundation and supervised the first storey's construction in the 12th century; Iltutmish who built the second, third and fourth; and Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who built the fifth stretching the minar to its present height of 72.5 metres. The British too made their addition. The balustrades that surround the balconies are Gothic. As part of the Quwwatul Islam mosque, it is no surprise Quranic inscriptions cover the walls. Some historians believe that Qutb
City Library – Akshay Pathak’s Books, Vasant Kunj Library by The Delhi Walla - August 22, 2012August 22, 20123 A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One humid afternoon The Delhi Walla knocked at the door of Akshay Pathak. In his 30s, Mr Pathak lives in an apartment in Vasant Kunj, a neighbourhood in south Delhi. Telling me that he has never counted the books in his library, Mr Pathak says, “I’m not collecting books to have a number.” A native of Bikaner, a desert town with no bookshops, Mr Pathak ran away from his home at 18. “I dropped out of school, and never went to college. I think, however, that I’m a closet academic- openly deriding academia and secretly tailing it” Showing me a hardbound copy of The Romantics, critic Pankaj Mishra’s debut
City Faith – Eid ul Fitr, Chitli Qabar Chowk Faith by The Delhi Walla - August 20, 2012August 20, 20121 Praying in the street. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There were no women to be seen. (They probably remained inside their homes.) The men filled up the mosques and also the streets to perform the prayers of Eid ul Fitr, the Muslim festival that arrives after 30 days of fasting. The Delhi Walla watched the faithful from a roof in Chitli Qabar Chowk, an intersection in the Walled City of Shahjahanabad. The prayers mats were spread out on alleys that were lined with garbage. The Hindu constables of the Delhi Police stood watching the crowd as it bowed towards Mecca. A woman's face briefly flashed on a window. An old man continued to sit on his portion of the pavement.
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXVII, ITO Graveyard Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - August 20, 2012April 17, 20130 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 27th 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. Each week we meet in a new venue to dive into the atmosphere of Marcel’s novel. It is 7 pm and The Delhi Walla is at the Muslim graveyard behind the Times of India building in ITO. I am all set to start the second volume, Within a Budding Grove. A friend lies buried here, somewhere. I have never visited his grave. I did not go to the hospital to see him after he was diagnosed
City Travel – Yamuna Expressway, Greater Noida Travel by The Delhi Walla - August 18, 2012August 18, 20122 Delhi to Agra and back. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There are no dhabas, no burger joints — not yet. Neither is there a rail crossing. You will not pass through a single town. The Yamuna Expressway takes you from Delhi to Agra in less than 2 hours. Bhopal Shatabdi Express, India’s fastest train, takes 2 hours and 11 minutes. A Tatkal ticket for Bhopal Shatabdi Express costs Rs 370, while on the expressway cars have to pay Rs 320 (one-way). Opened in August 2012, India’s longest six-lane highway is built as a public-private partnership project by the Noida-based infrastructure conglomerate Jaypee Infratech Ltd and the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government. Constructed at a cost of Rs 12,839 crore, the expressway has
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Chandni Singh, Janakpuri & Reading City Poetry General by The Delhi Walla - August 16, 2012June 3, 20155 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Chandni Singh on the online video call service Skype. Ms Singh, who spent her “happy childhood years” in Delhi where she has a house in Janakpuri, lives in Reading, UK. In her mid-20s, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Rural Livelihoods. “Usually words come to me while I am walking - I take long walks all the time - and I quickly type them on my phone,” says Ms Singh. “I scribble lines and words while on the bus, or during a classroom lecture, or in the midst of talking to a friend, or just before falling asleep, or immediately after waking up