The Delhi Proustians – The Best English Translation, Scott Moncrieff or Lydia Davis

The Delhi Proustians – The Best English Translation, Scott Moncrieff or Lydia Davis

Letters from Nagpur and Birmingham. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla is soon to restart the weekly meetings of The Delhi Proustians. The other day I received a mail from Ankit Kumar, a reader in Nagpur, Maharashtra. I’m sharing…

City Season - Semal Tree, Daryaganj Police Station

City Season – Semal Tree, Daryaganj Police Station

The news of summer. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi’s brief winter ends in January. February is pleasingly cool in the city. March is always warm. But this year March continued to behave like February. Then one morning…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Anurag Dixit, Ashram

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Anurag Dixit, Ashram

The 40th death. [Text by Anurag Dixit; photo by Anjali Dixit] The Unseen He died Before that, he trembled And before that, he suffered He suffered Before that, he walked He walked and he travelled And before that, he explored…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nishtha Gautam , Deshbandhu College

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nishtha Gautam , Deshbandhu College

The 39th death. [Text by Nishtha Gautam; photo by a French woman traveller] Nishtha Gautam died in a motor accident on the evening of 8 September. She was observing her weekly ritual of going to Agra, when her car rammed…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Indian Poetry in English, The Toddy Shop & Elsewhere

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Indian Poetry in English, The Toddy Shop & Elsewhere

The new life of verse. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Fancy giving somebody 2 lakh rupees because you like their poetry? That’s exactly what happened this year at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The Delhi-based poet Arundhathi Subramaniam received…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Zoya Singh, Lady Shri Ram College

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Zoya Singh, Lady Shri Ram College

The 38th death. [Text by Zoya Singh; photo by Vijay Singh] Zoya Singh always thought that she didn’t belong here. Even the words that she spoke carried in them some sense of oddness and misunderstanding that belonged to some other…

Atget’s Corner – 731-735, Delhi Photos

Atget’s Corner – 731-735, Delhi Photos

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,…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Pupps Roy, Kailash Colony

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Pupps Roy, Kailash Colony

The 37th death. [Text by Pupps Roy; photo by Unknown] Seize the day. Indeed, the phrase “carpe diem” was coined for Pupps Roy, a migrant who came to New Delhi with steely determination and went on to climb the pinnacle…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nammita Bhatia, Noida

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nammita Bhatia, Noida

The 36th death. [Text by Nammita Bhatia; photo by Sanskriti Mohta] Nammita (the ‘mm’ was her attempt at being different from all other Namitas out there) Bhatia, 52, finally died of heart failure during siesta yesterday, after dying a thousand…

Netherfield Ball – Jashn-e-Rekhta, India International Centre

Netherfield Ball – Jashn-e-Rekhta, India International Centre

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla attended the inaugural ceremony of Jashn-e-Rekhta held in the Fountain Lawns of the India International Centre (IIC). The two-day Urdu literary festival was hosted by…