City Food – Mutton Burra, Jama Masjid’s Karim Food by The Delhi Walla - November 17, 2012November 18, 201210 Carnivore's lust. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Probably the most iconic and long-lasting (and clichéd) culinary landmark of Delhi is Karim's restaurant, originally set up in the Walled City, but now with several franchises all over. The most necessary dish to order here is the mutton burra kebab. Gently roasted in a tandoor, the spiced mutton pieces on bones are served straight out of the smouldering coals, infused with their smoking aroma. The outer surface is dry and crisp; blackened in patches. As you try to cut into the large kebab, its top layer resists the intrusion into its inner secrets. The only way to make it succumb is to treat it the way the Asiatic barbarians of oriental myths
Photo Essay – The Pee Men, Around Town Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - November 16, 2012November 16, 20125 The wall's account. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] They come in one by one. These silent Delhi men. From morning to midnight. Some are tall with fierce eyes. Some are short. Some are fat. Some are Hindus. Some are Sikhs. There are Muslims, too. I have also suffered white men. All these men always have only one thing in mind. Some do it while standing. Some squat. Some have leather bags carefully balanced in their hand. Some come in cars which they park on the roadside before coming to me. Many are without any possession. They all have different smells. They wear different kinds of underwears: red, purple, green, blue, grey, white; Hanes, Jockey, Levi, Rupa, VIP, (V-shaped) Frenchie, home-sewn chaddis. The
City Hangout – Wild Life, Lodhi Gardens Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 15, 2012November 15, 20125 Rats, ducks, dogs, birds of our oasis. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Lodhi Gardens is a land of Very Important People and very showy lovers -- as any regular visitor will testify. Also, according to figures provided to The Delhi Walla by the Gardens’ authority, this 90 acres of oasis in central Delhi has 198 species of trees, 50 species of birds, 40 species of flowers, at least 30 stray dogs and -- a dangerously high number of lesser bandicoot rats, or Indian mole-rats. In October 2012 The Times of India warned the park’s regulars, saying, “Joggers will soon have to watch their step at Lodhi Gardens. For, bandicoot rats are feasting on food left behind for birds by visitors, and
City Notice – On Arundhati Roy General by The Delhi Walla - November 14, 2012November 14, 20123 Delhi's most famous mischief-maker. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Author Arundhati Roy, Delhi's greatest living badmash, is working on a new novel. The Delhi Walla got the news from the website Publishing Perspectives. Here is the complete text: November 12, 2012. Writer and activist Arundhati Roy announced at the Sharjah International Book Fair that she is in the process of writing a second novel. Roy’s first novel, The God of Small Things, was published in 1997 and won the Booker Prize in 1998. Since then, she has largely steered clear of fiction, focusing on writing non-fiction and on political activism. “The book took me over and even if I had wanted to escape from it, I couldn't,” Roy said of writing her first novel. “Fiction is
Mission Delhi – Ram Dulare, Parliament Street Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 13, 2012November 13, 20125 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sitting beside a basket filled with lemons, he is twirling up his white mustache. The Delhi Walla meets Ram Dulare, 81, on Parliament Street. He sells lemons on the pavement here. His customers comprise sarkari karamcharis, people employed in the nearby government offices. Mr Dulare's name means 'the beloved of Lord Ram' in Hindi. It is late afternoon. At this time the traffic primarily consists of auto rickshaws. Waving his arm towards the basket, Mr Dulare says, “I get about 10 kg lemons every morning from the mandi in Azadpur." He is referring to a wholesale market in north Delhi where fruit and vegetables arrive daily from different
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXXII, Delite Cinema Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - November 12, 2012April 17, 20136 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 32nd 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, a multi-volume novel sometimes also known as Remembrance of Things Past. 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 sitting outside the Delite Cinema in Daryaganj. I was hoping to read the novel in the balcony lounge but I was refused entry. Get a ticket, the guard insisted. So, I’m sitting outside, and imagining the crowd of people watching the
City Hangout – National Museum, Janpath Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 10, 2012November 11, 20129 Historic treasures. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The past gets tangible here. With over 200,000 exhibits, spanning over 5,000 years, the National Museum, India’s largest, is a storehouse of heritage. The museum has three floors. Its corridors are lined with 800 sculptures, from the 3rd century BC to the 18th century AD. The exhibition halls have statues, paintings and coins, toys and pottery. There is also a woman’s skeleton, with pottery shards arranged around her head, indicating that people of the Harappan civilization believed in life after death. With each gallery dedicated to a theme or period (Harappan civilization, Maurya dynasty, Sunga and Satvahana art, Gandhara sculptures), it is unsettling to walk through so many centuries in so little time. And
City Neighbourhood – Barack Chowk, Obama Vihar General by The Delhi Walla - November 8, 2012July 26, 20166 Barack Obama as a Delhi neighbourhood. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In 2009, Barack Hussein Obama took oath as the first black President of USA. In 2012, he was re-elected as the US President. In 2008, Maria Shriver, the then wife of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, had famously said, "If Barack Obama was a state, he’d be California. Diverse. Open. Smart. Independent. Bucks tradition. Innovative. Inspirational.” What if Barack Obama were a neighbourhood or a landmark in Delhi? What would he be? In 2009, The Delhi Walla had put this question to a few Delhiwallas in town. Siddhartha Basu, TV producer Barack Obama would be India Habitat Centre. He, like the IHC, is the new kid on the block, unlike the conservative India
City Food – Rajma-Kadhi-Chhole Chawal, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - November 6, 2012November 6, 20125 The office meal. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One of the joys of becoming an adult and having a day job is that your mother no longer controls your lunch menu. The food that she would make on special request can be had daily outside of home. In the world of Delhi’s office food, the trinity of rajma chawal, chhole chawal and kadhi chawal occupies a pedestal as high as Bhrama, Vishnu and Maheshwar. At home, these dishes, served with steamed rice, cannot be cooked as easily as, say, yellow dal. Preparing them for a meal demands hard work. For rajma or chhole, mother must soak the beans in water overnight, chop great quantities of onions, tomatoes and coriander
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXXI, Nicholson Road Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - November 4, 2012April 17, 20134 A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 31st 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, a multi-volume novel sometimes also known as Remembrance of Things Past. 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 Nicholson Road in Kashmere Gate. Named after an Irish army officer in the British East India Company, the bleak-looking street borders the remnants of the Walled City’s wall. I have come here to read Proust and to dwell on