Atget’s Corner – 991-995, Delhi Photos

Atget’s Corner – 991-995, 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,…

City Landmark - The Walled City Café & Lounge, Chhatta Sheikh Mangloo

City Landmark – The Walled City Café & Lounge, Chhatta Sheikh Mangloo

Radicalised getaway. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This has to be the most liberal place in the Muslim quarter of Old Delhi. Period. The Delhi Walla has not discovered a new Sufi shrine but a new coffee place….

Netherfield Ball - Singer Madhumita Bose Awes All the Poets at Ghalib's Tea Party Except for a Wahabi Short Story Writer, Ghalib Academy

Netherfield Ball – Singer Madhumita Bose Awes All the Poets at Ghalib’s Tea Party Except for a Wahabi Short Story Writer, Ghalib Academy

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] All the men seem to be taken in with the stiff protocol demanded by the ritual of milky chai and two kinds of biskuts. Only an illusion, however. Actually, all…

City Food - Daulat ki Chaat, Walled City

City Food – Daulat ki Chaat, Walled City

The snow of Delhi. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An abstraction, Daulat ki Chaat is more an idea than a dessert. A white froth, pop a spoonful of it into the mouth and it disappears. The lingering sweetness…

City Walk - Towards Flaubert's Tomb, Cimetière Monumental de Rouen

City Walk – Towards Flaubert’s Tomb, Cimetière Monumental de Rouen

Visiting a writer’s grave. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] So harmonious, these living arrangements of the dead. The Delhi Walla is at the Monumental Cemetery in Rouen, the home of Gustave Flaubert, the creator of Madame Bovary. In…

Photo Essay - Stealing a Letter and Doing Pushups at Marcel Proust's Tomb, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Photo Essay – Stealing a Letter and Doing Pushups at Marcel Proust’s Tomb, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

After Proust. [Photos by a Friend of Marcel Proust; text by Mayank Austen Soofi] Suddenly, MARCEL PROUST. His tomb. The Delhi Walla is at Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris. I have come to see Proust, the author of In Search of…

Atget’s Corner – 986-990, Delhi Photos

Atget’s Corner – 986-990, 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,…

City Moment - Seeing Proust's Soul in a Solitary Seagull, Cabourg, France

City Moment – Seeing Proust’s Soul in a Solitary Seagull, Cabourg, France

The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The seagull is quietly watching the waves. One evening The Delhi Walla is on Promenade Marcel Proust in Cabourg, the coastal town immortalised by Proust as Balbec in his novel…

City Landmark - Proust's Bed & the Grand Hotel, Cabourg, France

City Landmark – Proust’s Bed & the Grand Hotel, Cabourg, France

Marcel’s host. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the same bed on which Marcel Proust slept and the same window through which he would watch the sea outside. It is a cold and quiet day. The Delhi…

Home Sweet Home -Patrice Louis's Proustian Homestead, Combray

Home Sweet Home -Patrice Louis’s Proustian Homestead, Combray

A whole world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His house is devoted to Marcel Proust, his most beloved writer. One evening The Delhi Walla enters the home of author Patrice Louis in Combray. This French town is of…