Photo Essay – The Brown Dog On a Stone Tomb, Mehrauli Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - September 30, 2015September 30, 20152 Friend of the tomb. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. This is true only up to a point. There is a lazy dog, indeed, but no brown fox. Instead, there are many graves here and the lazy dog is slumped on one of them. The Delhi Walla is in a small unmarked graveyard in South Delhi’s Mehrauli. The brown dog is sprawled on a stone tomb. He seems sad. He gets up and looks straight ahead. He turns around and stares at the tomb stone. He peers closer. He walks away lazily. The grave is finally left to itself. Remembering a friend? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
City Moment – Historian Romila Thapar’s Disappearance, Khan Market Moments by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 2015September 29, 20153 The remarkable Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla spots historian Romila Thapar at the Faqirchand Bookstore in Delhi’s Khan Market. She is wearing a long grey kurta. Her hair is grey. Ms Thapar asks for Salman Rushdie’s latest novel. She gets it. She asks for Wendy Doniger‘s latest book. She gets it. She asks for a book on the people of the Toda tribe. It is not available. She asks the bookstore’s owners to get a copy for her. She gives them her phone number, requesting them to call her as soon as the book arrives. A Professor Emerita of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, Ms Thapar is the author of many books, including the classic,
Home Sweet Home – Anuj Panwar’s Residence, Chirag Dilli Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 2015September 29, 20154 Inside the walls. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His house feels like a hotel room that has just been cleaned by the housekeeping for the next guest. Not a single element is out of place. The laptop is on the writing table, the pillow on the bed and the towel on the hook. The Delhi Walla is at the home of Anuj Panwar in South Delhi’s Chirag Dilli. In his 20s, Mr Panwar is an IT professional. He works for one of India’s biggest shopping websites and is simultaneously enrolled in an MBA course through a distance learning programme. His parents live in a village in western Uttar Pradesh; his father is a farmer. An only child, Mr Panwar stays alone
City Monument – Teen Murti House, Central Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - September 28, 20155 Nehru's last home. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A koel perched somewhere on one of the trees is calling out incessantly. A peacock emerges from behind a hedge, but disappears the next instant. The big house exudes an air of aristocratic dignity: There’s a grand marble staircase, throne-like chairs, slatted windows, low-hanging ceiling fans, a stately ballroom with a giant fireplace, framed Buddha images, and dozens of black and white photographs of one man and his family, some of which were taken more than a century ago. It is like being in a dream. The real world seems far away. Such are the charms of Teen Murti Bhawan, where Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, lived. Today, home to the Nehru Memorial
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Aishwarya Kandpal, Třeboň, Czech Republic Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - September 27, 2015September 27, 20152 The 102nd death. [Text by Aishwarya Kandpal; photo by Unknown] My 45th death. November 19, 2055. Slurp. Sniff. Slurp. The huge Mishka sat next to a most demurely seated figure, head down on the grand piano, seemingly wondering why her master wouldn’t respond despite her vain attempts of the wondrously vehement licking. Five minutes later, she stretched her old paws on the grass and stared at what remained of the master with the equivalent of a dog’s expression of glum- droopy eyes blinking periodically. “Aishwarya Kandpal passes away. Snow covered body found head down on her grand piano in the middle of her small strawberry orchard. The death is probably a result of her late evening skinny-dipping in a nearby lake,” the local newspaper
City Life – Muhammed Sabir’s Dengue, Hazrat Nizamuddin East Life by The Delhi Walla - September 27, 2015September 27, 20154 A face in the fever. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The thinkable has happened. Muhammed Sabir, too, has got dengue. Mr Sabir is one of the thousands of Delhiwallas who have been hit by this fever in the current season. He also happens to be the only man in author Sadia Dehlvi’s life. He is her longtime cook. They live in Delhi’s upscale Hazrat Nizamuddin East. “Sabir was diagnosed with dengue three days ago,” says Ms Dehlvi, while preparing an extract of papaya leaves, which is said to have great curative powers for dengue patients. Ms Dehlvi says she did not sleep during the first night of the diagnosis. “I kept a watch over Sabir as he slept. I would
City Faith – Reading the Goat’s Mind, Gali Chamre Wali Faith by The Delhi Walla - September 25, 2015September 25, 20154 Last thoughts. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was the morning of the Muslim festival of Eid ul Zuha, or Bakra Eid, in which animals are sacrificed to commemorate the legend of a devout man’s complete surrender to his God. While strolling in the Old Quarter, The Delhi Walla came across a brown-and-white goat on Gali Chamre Wali, or the street of the leather. The goat was tied to the blue shutters of an adjacent shop. She was silently gazing on at what appeared to be the skin of a newly slaughtered goat. The skin was neatly arranged on the roadside, and was laid out after the shape of a goat. What was the brown-and-white goat thinking? Take your pick. a) My
City Landmark – Chiki Sarkar’s New Publishing House, Near Kamal Nursery Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - September 24, 2015September 25, 20156 A star is born. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The place is as sparse as Hemingway’s prose. There are tables and chairs, to be sure, but no unnecessary furniture. It is, however, too early to draw conclusions. This is still a first draft in process. There will soon be more staffers, more laptops, more lunch bags, and more tables. The Delhi Walla is in the office of the brand new Juggernaut Books, launched by publisher Chiki Sarkar. The colonial-era building looks like a snug cottage that won’t be out of place in a Jane Austen novel. Its location in the atmospheric Sujan Singh Park in Central Delhi situates it just across the road from Khan Market, which, of course, is
City Style – A Man in Asymmetrical Colours, Subway Restaurant, Khan Market Style by The Delhi Walla - September 24, 2015September 24, 20155 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His T-shirt is pink. His shorts are white. His hair are tied into two ponytails. Oh my God, his socks. One is pink. The other is green. There is no one dressed like him. The Delhi Walla sees this extraordinary man one evening inside a Subway sandwich outlet in Khan Market. He seems as much at home in his unusual dress as the woman on the next table in her everywoman salwar suit. Unlike his neighbor, the man defies accepted wisdom—and not only in his choice of socks. His shoes, too, are of different colours--- red and black. Also, the shoelaces: pink and white. Just as you start to shove the
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Elizabeth Varkey, East Delhi Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - September 24, 2015September 24, 20150 The 101st death. [Text by Elizabeth Varkey; photo by Hannah V. Nazareth] Elizabeth Varkey, daughter of Shri K.C. Varkeyachan breathed her last on a lovely, rainy afternoon like this, fit for jalebis and samosas and tea. But she had begun to dread tea-time and all the edible and emotional paraphernalia that accompanied it. Ms Varkey was a sucker for words and the profundity of a certain combination had ensnared her. She was meditating upon those words as she drank her umpteenth cup. Unfortunately she choked upon those words and died. She was discovered in her East Delhi flat, propped over the dining table with tea stains all over her lifeless form. An uneventful death. No occasion for great speeches. Only the burden of a burial