City Food – Odd High Tea Ritual, Old Delhi Food by The Delhi Walla - April 15, 2015April 15, 20151 The mystery couple. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The pavement tea stalls of Old Delhi are famous—or notorious, according to the individual’s taste—for their extra-sweet, extra-milky, extra-gingery chai. If you are a tea seller’s regular patron or if he likes your face or your political opinions, he might generously add spoonfuls of cream too. No surprises thus far. This is the Walled City’s high tea traditions. However, one aspect of Old Delhi’s tea-drinking culture has not been investigated by our city’s food chroniclers—the practice of serving chai in a glass tumbler, held in a china cup. Why this gimmick? After all, in most parts of Delhi, pavement stalls serve tea either in a glass tumbler or in a cup. If you visit Old
Atget’s Corner – 746-750, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - April 15, 20150 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. Five randomly picked pictures from this collection are regularly 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 746 to 750. 746. Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti 747. Pragati
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Veena Venugopal, Sector 42, Gurgaon Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - April 14, 2015April 14, 20153 The 56th death. [Text by Veena Venugopal; photo by Vishal Koul] Veena Venugopal, 70, died in Gurgaon yesterday after a bookshelf collapsed on her while she was moving to her 104th home. Doctors said the unopened box of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare knocked her out in a moment and it is unlikely that she suffered. Ms Venugopal was always promising to get to the classics, so it is as fitting as it is ironic that eventually, the classics got her. In life, Ms Venugopal juggled many roles – as a mother, journalist, editor and writer, but it was in reading other people’s WhatsApp exchanges in the Metro train that she derived her greatest joy. Despite the fact that her mother
City Library – Vinod Mehta’s Books, Hazrat Nizamuddin East Library by The Delhi Walla - April 13, 2015April 13, 20152 A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The warm daylight is streaming in through the window. It is utterly quiet. This is the book room of Vinod Mehta, the founder-editor of Outlook magazine who died in March, 2015. The Delhi Walla is in Mr Mehta’s first-floor apartment in Hazrat Nizamuddin East. His wife, Sumita, is showing me his library. “This is the place where Vinod would sit and read,” she says. “He wrote his two books on this desk.” Mr Mehta’s collection has more than a thousand volumes. Different genres lie together in a jumble of diversity. Lucy Peck’s Delhi: A Thousand Years of Building stands next to an old hardbound edition of The Faulkner Reader. Guy de Maupassant sits
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Binodan Kumar Dev Sarma, Dwarka Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - April 13, 2015April 13, 20150 The 55th death. [Text by Binodan Kumar Dev Sarma; photo by a "Dear Friend"] Iambic On a winter morning they discovered him still, fist open, legs apart, loins wet, a book of poetry lay open over his stiller chest, page 37, a poem by some Kolatkar earmarked with notes not his handwriting, he wrote with a pencil, this was with a pen blue ink, he preferred black. His pen, a roller, 0.7mm tip lay next to him. It would be carried with him to the pyre. His wife stacked the moleskeins beside the body, 21, each filled to last page except one. The first page of it the top right corner bore an ellipsis, the second only a prologue: 16 poems of dusk and dawn his story – dusk, hers – dawn his – an octet, hers – a
Atget’s Corner – 741-745, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - April 12, 2015April 13, 20150 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. Five randomly picked pictures from this collection are regularly 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 741 to 745. 741. Zakir Husain Marg 742. Hauz
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Sanmukh Rao Kuppannagari, Los Angeles Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - April 11, 2015April 11, 20152 The 54th death. [Text by Sanmukh Rao Kuppannagari; photo by Vishnu Vardhan] Sanmukh Rao Kuppannagari, better known by his Twitter handle @sraok, is the first person to legally die today on 1st April, 2120, since death was outlawed on 1st January, 2100, to mark the dawn of the new century, 15 years after the DNA Reconstruction Technology was perfected in 2085. A strong contributor and perpetrator of the technology, Mr Kuppannagari always had his reservations against what it could turn into, but he held them to himself due to its power to provide liberation. However, since the early 2090s, he became vocal about his concerns and for the next 30 years he waged a passionate war against outlawing death. His efforts finally paid
Netherfield Ball – Vijay Nambisan’s Poetry Talk, The Toddy Shop City Parties by The Delhi Walla - April 10, 2015April 10, 20153 The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla went to hear a high-brow chitchat in Hauz Khas Village. Poet Vijay Nambisan and The Caravan magazine’s associate editor Supriya Nair had announced a conversation on stage. The event was hosted by poet-novelist-guitarist Jeet Thayil in The Toddy Shop, a bar whose waiters present bills in poetry books. Mr Nambisan, who lives in some far-flung corner of South India, is whispered to be a recluse who would rather mull over Larkin and Heaney in his study than corrupt his soul in Delhi’s bitchy literary circle. But here he was with his wife, novelist Kavery Nambisan. After all, somebody had to promote First Infinities, Mr Nambisan’s new collection
City Hangout – Husseini Hotel, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - April 9, 20153 Rustic charm. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The pots and pans are filled with Delhi’s customary dishes; the thick rotis are stacked under a white netted fabric; the cooks routinely wave at passersby on the street; the two owners often double up as waiters; and the diners sit in the uncluttered courtyard, which feels so quiet that the adjacent street seems as far away as Siberia. Husseini Hotel is truly romantic. Even its address is filled with romance. It lies in a neighborhood that is named after a great Sufi saint, and the lane on which it stands is named after a great Urdu poet—Mirza Ghalib street, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. Come here, be seated, turn on your e-book and read for hours—nobody will
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Apoorva Wadhwa, Rohini Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - April 9, 20154 The 53rd death. [Text by Apoorva Wadhwa; photo by Mrinal Verma] As I trace her bildungsroman, I realize she was ambrosia. She was a plot without a resolution, A dream with colours incomprehensible. She sent love letters to herself, She loved words more than herself. Her favourite place was everywhere, Her favourite hobby to smile. She often set out by herself, waiting for epiphanies; Like a poetry in search of paradoxical allegories. For most of her life, she sat reading books. Or at her typewriter, punching until her fingers turned blue. She stared at the globe, And went places. As she lies there peaceful, She is content at her next destination. Our Self-Written Obituaries invites people to write their obituary in 200 words. The idea is to share with the world how you will like to be remembered