Atget’s Corner – 881-885, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - December 6, 20151 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 881 to 885. 881. Chawri Bazaar 882. Deer Park 883.
Delhi Metro – Divya Babu’s Commute With Proust, Pamuk, Dalrymple, Lahiri, Huda City Center Delhi Metro by The Delhi Walla - December 4, 2015December 4, 20158 The book lover’s commute. [Text by Divya Babu; photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] I open William Dalrymple's Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan. I look around and try to reposition my elbows in the best way possible. It's peak hour on the Delhi Metro and I'm standing in the ladies compartment. My hour-long commute starts from Huda City Centre in Gurgaon and ends at Barakhamba Road in Central Delhi, and my book has more than 500 pages. It was an autographed copy that I bought a few days ago at an elaborate book launch at the British Council in Connaught Place. I spend three minutes trying to decipher what William Dalrymple has inscribed for me on the title page. I'm
City Walk – Ghalib Street, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti Walks by The Delhi Walla - December 2, 2015December 2, 20153 Poet's highway. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] While the poet has been dead for over a century, his poetic landscape lives on in the iambic pentameter of the crowds on Ghalib Street. Here human rhythms beat out a verse all their own. The various landmarks are like couplets. Super Looks Saloon looks out on to a dilapidated ruin; the Happy Deal Store’s bearded owner often reads out his late father’s handwritten Urdu diary. The tables outside Ghalib Kabab Corner are laid out on the pavement, as in a Parisian café. Ahmed Emporium advertises mosquito nets. Mother India Travels promises a daily bus service to the Taj Mahal in Agra and Attar Mahal’s glass perfume bottles are stacked near an aquarium. The
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Pepsi, Sarita Vihar Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - December 1, 2015December 1, 20150 The 106th death. [Text and photo by Nipa Charagi] If Pepsi, 14, hadn't bitten off her stitches, she would still have been, well, alive... eating, sleeping, snoring (it's like a truck trying to get out of a ditch, but more rhythmic) and dreaming, in that order. Damn that vet, who kept pumping saline into her body, as if it was going out of circulation. The last words Pepsi heard was N sobbing and S consoling her. N and Pepsi have spent so many evenings on the couch together, N watching TV, checking for ticks, reading a magazine (yes, all at the same time), and Pepsi dreaming of chocolate and chips. N would try every trick to eat chocolates slyly, to avoid Pepsi, she with