City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXVIII, Indian Coffee House Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - September 30, 2012April 17, 20134 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 28th 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 Indian Coffee House in Connaught Place. Because of its rundown furnishings, uniformed stewards and its earlier repute as the nucleus of Delhi’s intellectuals, this place seems to be owned by the past, rather than the present. I often come here hoping to find clues to a city that was. Today,
City Monument – Maulana Azad’s Mausoleum, Near Meena Bazaar Monuments by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 2012September 29, 20126 The tomb of secularism. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is circled by the sounds of Shahjahanabad’s beggars, pavement vendors, shopkeepers, shoppers, goats, and amateur cricketers. Yet, the garden-tomb of Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed, aka Maulana Azad, remains tranquil. A freedom fighter, Azad, like millions of his fellow Muslims, chose not to migrate to Pakistan following the Indian Partition. The first education minister of a free India, he died in 1958. His resting place lies close to the dargah of his beloved sufi saint, Sarmad Shahid; it also looks to the eastern gateway of the Jama Masjid. It was on the stairs of this mosque in October 1947 that Azad famously exhorted the Muslims to “pledge that this country is
City Book – Nobody Can Love You More, GB Road The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - September 27, 2012September 27, 20125 The first book on Delhi’s red-light district. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] In GB Road, Delhi’s red light district, the women of Kotha No. 300 raise their children; visit temples, shrines and mosques; complain about pimps and brothel owners; cook for their lovers; listen to film songs; and solicit customers. Following the habits of those at No. 300, Nobody Can Love You More paints an intimate portrait of people who have been shepherded by circumstance into living extraordinary lives. Amid the sordid and routine minutiae of brothel life, The Delhi Walla is shown the cruel and the compassionate, the carefree and the transcendent. With faithful impressions and black & white photographs, I attempt to tenderly sketch GB Road’s transient world
Mission Delhi – Muhammed Anwar, Hazrat Nizamuddin Chilla Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 25, 2012August 2, 20191 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The elderly fakir has always felt a sense of peace living year after year alongside a graveyard in the Sufi shelter of Hazrat Nizamuddin's Chilla. “I like being by myself, I like tanhai (solitude),” declares Muhammed Anwar—although he does have a bunch of cats and a couple of dogs for company. The isolated composure of this Central Delhi graveyard “provides me with sukoon (calm), and makes me feel close to the creator.” The 70-year-old left his home in Kolkata as a young man and never returned. Did he ever think of his parents? “They must have died. And my brothers must have their own families to look after.” Come
City Notice – The Delhi Proustians XXVIII, Indian Coffee House Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - September 24, 2012April 17, 20131 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 24 September 2012. It was scheduled to take place in the lobby of The Imperial. Because I could not get the permission to use the hotel's space, the venue has moved to the Indian Coffee House in Connaught Place. Attention: The first Proustian to reach there will be gifted a boxed set of Marcel Proust's multi-volume novel. Where Indian Coffee House, Mohan Singh Place, near Hanuman Mandir, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Connaught Place Time 7 pm Nearest Metro Station Rajiv Chowk
City Food – Motichoor Laddu, Ghantewala Halwai Food by The Delhi Walla - September 23, 2012September 23, 201210 Food for the gods. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is the sweet of the gods. On Tuesdays, Hindus offer Hanuman boondi laddu, made of deep-fried besan balls held together with flavoured sugar syrup. The pot-bellied Ganesha, the god of writers, is known as modak-priya, the one who loves modak, Sanskrit for laddu. While Swiss chocolates have begun to be in vogue as Diwali presents, the boxes of good old boondi laddu haven’t gone out of fashion yet. Be it your daughter’s engagement, your wife’s birthday, or your son's first job, any happy occasion that demands ‘mooh meetha karao’ (sweeten the mouth), is an occasion for boondi laddu to be distributed. In Bollywood potboilers, the widowed mother of the hero
City Hangout – Night Time Delhi, Around Town Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - September 21, 2012September 21, 20124 On the road. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Friday. 10.30pm. Hauz Khas Village. The street lamps are not working. The headlights of passing cars briefly illuminate the faces of a chic crowd on the roadside, returning well-fed from Hauz Khas eateries. A group of four is walking towards the Pind Balluchi restaurant in Deer Park, twittering in American-accented English. The street is jammed with cars filled with people who have booked tables in the area’s various restaurants. There are as many pedestrians. Our car finally manages to speed towards Aurobindo Marg. This Tata Indigo is one of the 300 Meru Cabs (a radio cab service) that zip through the city’s roads during the small hours. Driver Chand Choudhary, a veteran of
City Culture – De Bhasar, Barakhamba Road Culture by The Delhi Walla - September 19, 2012September 19, 20122 The philosophy of nonsense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The image of a dark-skinned barber’s modest salon (complete with towels and a mirror) is imposed on a patchwork of hundreds of snapshots of street vendors and homeless people. The Delhi Walla saw this graphic on Barakhamba Road. It is depicted on the boundary wall of an empty highrise. This is the sixth 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 designs and literature, which concentrates its anti-sentimental
City Notice –The Delhi Walla’s New Book The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - September 17, 2012September 17, 201217 The first book on Delhi’s red-light district. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla has found a new home in GB Road, the city’s red-light area. There I gossip with the prostitutes, eat meals cooked by them, and play with their children. The women of kotha number teen sau tell me things they don’t share even with each other. They talk of their lovers, of the families they left behind, and of their dreams. Together we listen to film songs. Sometimes we dance. I wrote all of this in Nobody Can Love You More, the first book on Delhi’s red-light district. When I browse for books in, say, Khan Market, it is difficult to imagine that the world of the kothas exists
City Notice – The Delhi Proustians XXVIII, The Imperial Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - September 16, 2012April 17, 201311 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 24 September 2012. Venue: The lobby of The Imperial, Janpath Lane, Connaught Place. Nearest Metro Station: Rajiv Chowk Time: 7 pm. Attention: The first Proustian to reach there will be gifted an entire set of Marcel Proust's multi-volume novel.