Atget’s Corner – 641-645, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - December 30, 2014December 30, 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 641 to 645. 641. Basant Lok
City List – Queer Landmarks, Around Town Delhi by List by The Delhi Walla - December 29, 2014December 29, 20141 The Delhi gaydar. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi; the above photo was sourced from Gaylaxy magazine] From the top to the bottom, this is a list of Delhi's most well-known and lesser-known queer sites. Made with inputs from LGBT activists Steven Baker and Dhamini Ratnam, it details popular cruising areas for men who want to have sex with other men, locations charged with equal-rights activism and commercial spaces where the pink rupee might be spent. Since the advent of gay dating apps like Grindr and Bendr that reveal how close a user is to his next conquest - within an accuracy range of 20 feet - finding a date can be achieved through the touch of a button. The cruising areas
Letter from Allahabad – The Last Bungalows, Civil Lines Travel by The Delhi Walla - December 27, 20140 The precious relics. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Allahabad is the land of the Sangam. This meeting point of the Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers in eastern Uttar Pradesh has been attracting pilgrims for centuries. But one should also make a pilgrimage to Allahabad to see its Raj-era bungalows — those crumbling mansions so atmospheric, so superior in beauty to their modern cousins in Lutyens’ Delhi. While every district headquarter in India has been a beneficiary of the Raj’s architectural projects, this town astounds with the number of bungalows that survive to this day. It’s difficult to give an exact count of how many have lived to tell the tale but old-timers know that over the last decade, many
Atget’s Corner – 636-640, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - December 27, 2014December 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 636 to 640. 636. Deer Park 637.
City Notice – The Delhi Walla on Radio France General by The Delhi Walla - December 25, 2014December 25, 20140 Now in Paris. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] The year 2014 ends with a lovely note. Thousands of Parisians tuned in to The Delhi Walla. I was interviewed by Radio France. The long documentary on Delhi was the brainchild of Michel Pomarede, a Paris-based radio producer. The aim of his programme, as he told me, was to draw "a portrait of a city as a world… a world as intimate as possible.” Mr Pomarede also talked to a few other Delhiwallas including author Malvika Singh and graphic novelist Sarnath Bannerjee. (But the show begins and ends with me and I’m in between too!) France is the homeland of Marcel Proust, my most beloved author. This makes this radio documentary an event in my life. You
Netherfield Ball – Intizar Hussain’s Late-coming, Oxford Bookstore City Parties by The Delhi Walla - December 23, 2014December 24, 20140 The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold evening The Delhi Walla attended a talk by Pakistani author Intizar Hussain at the Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place. Mr Hussain lived up to his name, which means 'wait' in Urdu. He arrived almost an hour late. The host was obliged to serve two rounds of ginger-flavoured chai for the waiting crowd. It did not help that there were only two famous people to ogle at – author Rakhshanda Jalil and graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee who was accessorized with a a red man bag. (A woman's handbag lying unattended on a chair showed a glimpse of Upamanyu Chatterjee's new novel.) The most powerful person spotted was Karthika V.K. She is not
City Landmark – Indira Gandhi’s Bungalow, Safdarjung Road Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 22, 2014November 22, 20152 The queen's white house. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One small group of women is wearing saris, Gujarati style. Another group is chattering in Bengali. A third group of women, with jasmine flowers in their hair, is clearly from the south. A barefoot man in a yellowing dhoti could be a farmer from any village in India. This diverse crowd walks wide-eyed in a white bungalow on central Delhi’s 1, Safdarjung Road. Former prime minister Indira Gandhi lived in this house for 20 years, until her assassination in 1984. It is now a memorial to her. Such conversion might never happen again in Delhi. “Henceforth, no bungalow shall be made available for memorial for any person,” Arun Jaitley, a cabinet minister in
Atget’s Corner – 631-635, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - December 21, 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 631 to 635. 631. Turkman Gate 632.
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Taslima Nasreen, Undisclosed Location City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - December 20, 2014June 3, 20151 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet and author Taslima Nasreen at her home in Delhi. It’s 20 years since the Bengali author was made to leave her country Bangladesh following blasphemy charges and death threats. Thousands of people regularly marched in Dhaka in 1994 demanding her execution for allegedly insulting Islam in her writings. Today, the 52-year-old writer is the resident of a leafy neighbourhood of our city. Living in the capital since 2011, Ms Nasreen’s life seems uneventful on the surface. She buys books at the Oxford bookstore in Connaught Place and shops for fresh fish at the Bengali-dominated Chittaranjan Park. With her country refusing to renew her passport, Ms
Atget’s Corner – 626-630, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - December 20, 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 626 to 630. 626. Janpath 627. Ballimaran 628.