City Moment – People of the Book, Indian Coffee House

City Moment – People of the Book, Indian Coffee House

The remarkable Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One afternoon The Delhi Walla enters the Indian Coffee House in Connaught Place. I’m carrying London-based photographer Stuart Freedman’s new book, The Palaces of Memory: Tales from the Indian…

Netherfield Ball – Dietician Nishi Grover's Book Reception, Ritu Kumar Store, Khan Market

Netherfield Ball – Dietician Nishi Grover’s Book Reception, Ritu Kumar Store, Khan Market

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla attended the launch of The Bridal Diet: Get Fit Not Fat This Festive Season, a book by dietician Nishi Grover at the Ritu Kumar Store…

Death Notice – Spell & Bound Bookshop is Closing, SDA Market

Death Notice – Spell & Bound Bookshop is Closing, SDA Market

Death of a landmark. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opened in 2011, the Spell & Bound Bookshop in South Delhi’s SDA Market will soon be history. “We are closing this month,” a staffer told The Delhi Walla. He…

Death Notice – Timeless Art Book Studio is Closing, Kotla Mubarakpur

Death Notice – Timeless Art Book Studio is Closing, Kotla Mubarakpur

Death of a landmark. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opened in its new avatar in 2009, Timeless Art Book Studio in Kotla Mubarakpur, South Extension-I, will soon be history. “I deal in expensive coffee-table books. Since there are…

Julia Child in Delhi – Himani Dehlvi Makes 'Go-To' Mutton Kofta, Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I

Julia Child in Delhi – Himani Dehlvi Makes ‘Go-To’ Mutton Kofta, Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of South Delhi’s Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I. Himani Dehlvi lives in a cheery sun-filled apartment with husband, Vaseem, and cook, Zakir. A 50-something…

Photo Essay - Museum of Rejects, Vasundhara

Photo Essay – Museum of Rejects, Vasundhara

A scrap dealer’s shed. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One morning The Delhi Walla enters the shed of scrap dealer Raju, who uses only one name. The decade-old shed is situated in an open ground in Vasundhara, a…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Elizabeth Bishop, Fact & Fiction Booksellers

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Elizabeth Bishop, Fact & Fiction Booksellers

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet American poet Elizabeth Bishop at the Fact & Fiction Booksellers in South Delhi’s Basant Lok Market. The city’s most eclectic bookshop, Fact &…

Atget’s Corner – 861-865, Delhi Photos

Atget’s Corner – 861-865, 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 – Neha Mathur, Asiad Village

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Neha Mathur, Asiad Village

The 99th death. [Text by Neha Mathur; photo by “Husband”] As irony would have it, a hailstorm ravaged the night when Neha Mathur’s soul departed for another world, just like the day she was born. A single spaghetti dangled from…

City Moment – The Last Remaining Books, Fact & Fiction Booksellers

City Moment – The Last Remaining Books, Fact & Fiction Booksellers

The remarkable Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla enters the Fact & Fiction Booksellers in Basant Lok Market. The shop is empty. There are no customers. There aren’t even many books. Almost…