The Dawn Review – On Nobody Can Love You More The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - May 11, 2013May 11, 20133 Life in a red light district. [By Rakhshanda Jalil] Rakhshanda Jalil discussed Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District, a book by The Delhi Walla in the Karachi-based daily Dawn. See below. PROBING, PENSIVE, perceptive Nobody Can Love You More (Penguin Viking) takes us into the heart of Delhi’s red-light district with an unself-conscious ease and disarming unpretentiousness. In its author, Mayank Austen Soofi we have a Manto of our times and in the book’s central character, Sushma, a latter-day version of Manto’s Sultanas and Saugandhis. Like the Sultana of Kaali Shalwar, Soofi’s Sushma too lives in a kotha on G. B. Road facing the shunting sheds of the Delhi railway station and ekes out a living by selling
City Monument – Akshardham Temple, Noida Modh Monuments by The Delhi Walla - May 9, 2013July 4, 20133 Our new monument. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] According to The New York Times, Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple has a “Disney touch”. That's very insulting but that’s no exaggeration. Akshardham has a musical fountain, a large format movie screen, and also boat rides, all coming with a fee. Offering a mix of religious and nationalist paraphernalia, it has statues of sadhus as well as of “patriots of India”. Built over 100 acres on the banks of Yamuna by a sect called Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, the temple is dedicated to a 18th century Hindu godman called Bhagwan Swaminarayan, who at age 11 embarked on a spiritual journey across the subcontinent. Writing about it on The Delhi Walla here, blogger Gaurav
City Season – Bougainvillea Bushes, Around Town General by The Delhi Walla - May 7, 2013May 7, 20132 More heat, more flowers. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] As Delhi gets white hot in May, the multi-colored flowers of the thorny bougainvillea spread across the capital in shades of pink, white, brown, yellow, orange, purple and blue. These papery flowers are scentless. “Bougainvilleas are hardy in nature,” says Dr SS Sandhu, secretary of the Delhi-based Bougainvillea Society of India, which was founded in 1962 by agricultural scientist B.P. Pal. “They neither need excessive irrigation nor moderate temperature and therefore they grow very well in rocky and desert areas. The hotter it is, the more flowers there are.” Dr Sandhu describes bougainvillea as a decorative plant belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae. A native of Brazil, the drought-tolerant shrub holds on to
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – C.P. Cavafy, Rail Bhawan City Poetry General by The Delhi Walla - May 5, 2013June 3, 20150 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet C.P. Cavafy at his office in Rail Bhawan, the headquarters of the Indian Railways in Central Delhi. At the age of twenty nine Mr Cavafy took up an appointment as special clerk in the Third Circle of the Ministry of Railways. He circulates his poetry only among a select group of friends. "I meet them every evening in Nehru Park," he tells me. In his early 50s, the clerk-poet, who writes in Greek, lives with his mother at a two-room apartment in Janakpuri, West Delhi. He shares a poem with us. Two Young Men, 23 to 24 Years Old He’d been sitting in the café since ten-thirty expecting
City Culture – Rules for Ayahs, The Delhi Golf Club Culture by The Delhi Walla - May 1, 2013May 2, 20138 On lesser human beings. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla is not a member of The Delhi Golf Club. Thank God. The 220-acre course of green grass and Lodhi-era tombs mirrors the perverse side of this city. One of the Club Rules cited on its official website says: Members Domestic Employees (MDE)such as ayahs, drivers, attendants etc. while they are in the club premises shall be subject to and shall obey, the lawful orders given to them by the Captain, Secretary or any Office bearer or authorised officer of the Club and it shall be the duty of members to instruct MDE accordingly. MDE are not permitted in the Club House, Lounges, Annexe, Golf Course etc. Ayahs are only