Photo Essay – The Fire, Himalaya House
Tragedy in the morning. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The cold morning was masked in a gray fog of smoke that leapt out of the 15-storey Himalaya House, an office-complex on Kasturba Gandhi Marg, an avenue in Central…
City Secret – Devi Prasad Sadan Dhobi Ghat, Hailey Lane
The world of the washermen. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Oxford dictionary describes a dhobi as “a person whose occupation is washing clothes” and a ghat as “a flight of steps leading down to a river”. Yet…
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXXIV, Old Delhi Railway Station
A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 34th meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Monday evening for an hour we read…
City Moment – Book Launch Ceremony, Matia Mahal
The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is about noon. The Delhi Walla enters the home of Haji Miyan and his brother Amir Dehlvi. They live in Matia Mahal, a congested neighbourhood in the Walled…
City Monument – Hindon Rail Bridge, Ghaziabad
The bridges of a Delhi county. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Positioned five miles outside Delhi’s eastern limits, this redbrick railway bridge is in Ghaziabad, a district in Uttar Pradesh. Composed of a series of six 70-feet-wide arches,…
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Job, BKS Marg Subway
Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Job at the BKS Marg subway in Connaught Place. Telling me his story, Job says he was a decent man who suffered…
City Life – Home Sweet Home, Lodhi Road
Inside the walls. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold evening The Delhi Walla entered the home of a person who appeared to be living alone in this city. The house looked to Lodhi Road. It had no…
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians XXXIII, GB Road
A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the 33rd meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas that discusses French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Monday evening for an hour we read…
City Food – Aloo Chaat, Around Town
Beyond the french fries. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi’s roadside version of French fries is not eaten with the fingers. Cut into cubes and fried to a crisp, the potatoes in the aloo chaat come coated with…
City View – Delhi Intellectuals & Anti-Semitism
The other side of the story. [By Jonas Moses-Lustiger] I am a Franco-German. I have lived in Delhi and have travelled throughout India. I speak Hindi and understand Bengali. I know all the Madhuri Dixit songs. I consider Satyajit Ray…
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