Atget’s Corner – 541-545, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 19, 2014October 19, 20142 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 541 to 545. 541. Place Unknown 542.
Letter from Noida – The Progress of Womanhood, Sector 34 Life by The Delhi Walla - October 17, 2014October 17, 20142 Notes of a young mother. [By Manika Dhama] “It’s a girl." Immediately after I heard her first cry the doctor informed me that I had given birth to a girl. Perhaps I was just imagining their lack of enthusiasm at the news, but while they ran customary checks on her, I wondered how people usually broke the news of a baby boy’s birth and whether it was as solemn. A little while later they handed her over saying “Here’s your daughter.” I had to stop smiling and purse my lips into a pout so that I could kiss her cheek. Truth be told, I followed the kiss with trying to check if she had my eyes. She didn’t, and I thought, “Ah
City Food – Phirni, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 2014October 16, 20141 Taste of Kashmir. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Many Kashmiris leave for Delhi during winters to escape the harsh cold in the valley. Between November and February, the relatively wealthy families hailing from Srinagar, Pahalgam and Anantnag stay in hotels in Matia Mahal, a bazaar that faces Jama Masjid in the Walled City. You will find Kashmiris sitting at street-side stalls discussing marriages, crops, carpets and newspaper headlines over pink-coloured noon chai (salted tea) and lavasa (bread). These sights disappear by March but one Kashmiri delicacy never goes off the streets of Delhi, be it winter, summer or monsoon. Phirni, a creamy rice flour pudding, has Kashmiri origins. In Chor Bizarre, the Kashmiri-speciality restaurant in Daryaganj’s Broadway Hotel, the yellow-coloured kesar phirni,
Atget’s Corner – 536-540, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 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 536 to 540. 536. India Gate
City Archives – Barsatis, Around Town Delhi Archives by The Delhi Walla - October 15, 2014October 15, 20142 [Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] It’s vanishing. The barsati. The small room at the top of the house where the family could enjoy the cool breeze during the monsoon. A unique Delhi phenomenon. The city’s real estate regulations spawned a way of life that was artistic and idealistic, temporary and flamboyant. Taking its name from barsat, Urdu for heavy showers, the barsati was a room with a large terrace. Holed up in these below-the-sky capsules, young, unconventional middle-class migrants waited for new opportunities. A few barsati residents later became famous. Painter M.F. Husain lived in a Jangpura barsati. British author Ian Jack had a barsati near the railway tracks in Defence Colony. Writer Arundhati Roy shaped her world view in
Atget’s Corner – 531-535, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 14, 20142 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 531 to 535. 531. Hazrat Nizamuddin
City Walk – Chelmsford Road, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 2014October 13, 20141 Stretch of serenity. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “… The 20 kiloton warhead, which had exploded 1,600 ft above Chelmsford Road, midway between Connaught Place and New Delhi railway station, had demolished everything. Temperatures at the blast areas would have reached 3,000 degrees Celsius. The heat had no discrimination. Nothing appeared to have survived.” Delhi is nuked in Humphrey Hawksley’s apocalyptic 2003 book The Third World War: A Terrifying Novel of Global Conflict. This can actually happen to our city but the British journalist is overstretching his geopolitical fantasy by making the bomb explode exactly above Chelmsford Road. This mile-long stretch, named after a British viceroy, is not worthy of such drama. Although it is traffic-heavy due to its proximity
Atget’s Corner – 526-530, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 12, 20142 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 526 to 530. 526. Paharganj 527. Dilshad
Atget’s Corner – 521-525, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - October 10, 2014October 10, 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 521 to 525. 521. Zakir Nagar 522.
City Moment – Pandit Jasraj’s Sighting, Kamani Auditorium Moments by The Delhi Walla - October 9, 2014October 9, 20141 A living legend. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla attended a classical music concert organized by the Department of Art and Culture, Delhi Government, in association with Punjabi Academy, in central Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium. The hall was packed with the elderly. The front seats were occupied by senior secretaries of the ministry of culture – and their respective wives. The master of ceremony was a lady in a red saree who used the occasion to remind the audience about the Honorable Prime Minister’s ‘Clean India’ mission. The evening’s first performance was by sarod player Narendra Nath Dhar who tested the patience of the honorable secretaries by taking a long time to tune his instrument. Next came Pandit