Mission Delhi – Mithilesh Singh, Bahrisons Booksellers Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 30, 2014September 30, 20145 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He has hardly any books in his house but he is known to many Delhiwallas who live in book-lined homes. Mithilesh Singh, a 39-year-old college dropout from Bihar, is the floor manager at Bahrisons Booksellers in Delhi’s Khan Market. The landmark book store is patronized by the Capital’s famous people, and all of them turn to Mr Singh on literary matters. “Mithilesh is a genius,” says author William Dalrymple. “I love the way he knows about any book I ask for and can generally find it in seconds even if it involves shinning up some rickety stepladder or rootling around in some attic. If not, he knows
Atget’s Corner – 506-510, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 2014September 29, 20140 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 25,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Each day five randomly picked pictures from this collection will be put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 506 to 510. 506. Oberoi Hotel
City Archives – Delhi Belly, Around Town Delhi Archives by The Delhi Walla - September 28, 2014September 28, 20140 [Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] Messy, smelly and non-stop, Jane Austen would have described it as a continual state of inelegance. Delhi’s biggest embarrassment, it is also the title of a Bollywood film. The phrase Delhi Belly, according to the Hanklyn-Janklin dictionary, is “a stomach disorder sometimes afflicting newcomers to the capital”. Infectious amoebic agents such as Entamoeba histolytica enter the body, the intestine reacts and throws out all infection through frequent motions. It’s not Al Qaeda, but Americans take Delhi Belly seriously. According to a US diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity since he is not authorized to share this information, his embassy in New Delhi maintains a laboratory devoted to testing for germs and diseases such
City Moment – Woman Reading a New Novel, Lodhi Garden Moments by The Delhi Walla - September 26, 2014September 26, 20141 The remarkable Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla came across a woman in Lodhi Garden. She was sitting alone on a green bench. The setting sun was casting an orange glow on parts of her. The sun’s gold-colored rays had also dismembered the solid-seeming bodies of the surrounding trees. But the woman’s eyes were glued to her iPad. She seemed far outside our world. "You seem oblivious to the beauty in front of you," I said. The woman lifted her head. She looked around -- beer-bellied joggers were running past the bench. She smiled and said something on these lines: "No... I'm here because (she emphasized on ‘because’) it is so beautiful... I’m reading Amit
City List – Walla Blogs/Sites, Inspired from The Delhi Walla Delhi by List by The Delhi Walla - September 25, 2014September 25, 20140 From Kashmir to Karachi. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla started his blog/website in 2007. The aim was (and remains) to understand this city through its people, places, buildings, cuisines, seasons, and many other such aspects. The point is also to capture the changes we all Delhiwallas have to constantly deal with in our private and public worlds. And the hope is that nothing on the pages of this website gets outdated -- a hundred years from now, the writings and the photographs on thedelhiwalla.com should show a precious world that has been lost. Meanwhile, a few other interesting walla blogs/websites have come up in places other than Delhi. Of course, those web addresses got the idea from this
Mission Delhi – Surya Ramasamy, India Habitat Center Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 21, 2014September 22, 20141 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] What are we but hapless humans trying to adapt to a constantly changing world. There must have been a time when our most intimate relationships were restricted to the immediate geographic space we lived in. Today, they thrive on the internet. This idea became clearer one evening when The Delhi Walla came across a young woman who seemed to be wandering aimlessly in the open-air area of the India Habitat Center. She had a laptop in her hand. Probably in her twenties, the woman was talking to herself, but her eyes were darting around absentmindedly as if they had no connection with her thoughts. Suddenly, she laughed. On
Hidden in Plain Sight – Arundhati Roy on Caste & The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Culture by The Delhi Walla - September 20, 2014September 21, 20141 An interview with the author-essayist. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] "Arundhati (Roy) is my friend. She's a good writer. But I don't take her comments seriously. She once described the Naxalites as 'Gandhians with Guns'. Let's see if she'll change her opinion on Gandhi or not" - so said India's most admired political psychologist and social theorist Ashis Nandy in response to The Doctor and the Saint, Ms Roy's essay on caste that also dwelt on Gandhiji's attitude towards this system. The essay has prompted many other public intellectuals to cast doubts on Ms Roy's ability to discuss caste, Mahatma Gandhi and related subjects. The Delhi-based author confronted these questions in an interview to Malayala Manorama, a publication from her home-state of
Atget’s Corner – 501-505, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - September 19, 20140 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 25,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Each day five randomly picked pictures from this collection will be put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 501 to 505. 501. Chitli Qabar
City Monument – Holy Trinity Church, Turkman Gate Monuments by The Delhi Walla - September 19, 2014September 19, 20144 A Byzantine phantom. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A succession of white domes, topped with lantern-like structures, estranges this old building from its counterparts in this quarter of the city. The Holy Trinity Church stands at the southern border of Old Delhi. Red lines run across the thick walls of grey stones. The church was erected early last century. A tablet on the front wall says: To the glory of God And in memory of Alexander Charles Maitland The foundation stone of This Church of the Holy Trinity Was laid on Feb.1.1904 By his widow Mary R. Maitland The very-long-named book Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900, describes
Atget’s Corner – 496-500, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - September 17, 20140 The visible city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is a voyeur’s paradise and The Delhi Walla also makes pictures. I take photos of people, streets, flowers, eateries, drawing rooms, tombs, landscapes, buses, colleges, Sufi shrines, trees, animals, autos, libraries, birds, courtyards, kitchens and old buildings. My archive of more than 25,000 photos showcases Delhi’s ongoing evolution. Each day five randomly picked pictures from this collection will be put up on the pages of this website. The series is named in the memory of French artist Eugène Atget (1857-1927), who, in the words of a biographer, was an “obsessed photographer determined to document every corner of Paris before it disappeared under the assault of modern improvements.” Here are Delhi photos numbered 496 to 500. 496. Hazrat Nizamuddin