Photo Essay – Bahrisons Booksellers After Balraj Bahri’s Passing Away, Khan Market Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - February 29, 2016February 29, 20160 Life of a bookshop. [photos by Florian Morin; text by Mayank Austen Soofi] February 26, 2016: Balraj Bahri Malhotra, the 87-year-old founder of Delhi's iconic Bahrisons Booksellers bookstore in Khan Market, passes away. (The Delhi Walla wrote his obituary here.) February 27: His funeral takes place at Central Delhi's Lodhi Crematorium. The bookstore remains closed. February 28: At 10.40 am, some employees of the Bahrisons are seen standing in front of the shop—its shutters are down. The shop is supposed to open at 11 am. Soon, the rest of the staffers start to arrive one by one. Some of them have chai on the pavement. They chat for a while. Two staffers gently remove the placards put up yesterday to announce
City Moment – The Artist Sits Beside His Biography, Venice Ghetto Moments by The Delhi Walla - February 29, 2016February 29, 20160 The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He looks like Walt Whitman from one angle and Leo Tolstoy from another. But the man with the white beard is Gilberto Visintin, a self-described vagabond artist. He has two pair of glasses--green rim glasses are hanging down from his neck, and red rim glasses are in his jacket pocket. The Delhi Walla meets him one cold wet windy evening at a small art gallery in Venice’s ancient Jewish district; the world’s first ghetto is observing its 500th anniversary this year. Some of Mr Visintin’s paintings are hanging on the gallery’s wall. They all depict Venice and are awaiting buyers. He shows a book, saying, “I wrote it." The paperback is on a 15th
City Landmark — Emilio Piacentini’s Wood Carving Shop, Venice Ghetto Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 28, 2016February 28, 20160 The last man standing. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This frail white-haired man is among the last of his kind in Venice. Emilio Piacentini is a wood-carver in the city’s ancient Jewish ghetto, which is observing its 500th anniversary this year. The Delhi Walla meets him one afternoon inside his deliciously shabby shop—it is cluttered with all sorts of wood things, from mirror frames to cupboards to wooden chandeliers. In his late 70s, Mr Piacentini is among the half-a-dozen aging woodcarvers left in the city, and the only one in the ghetto. He started the business 40 years ago. Before that this used to be a horsemeat shop. The shop is as scenic as the area’s synagogues and looks
City Notice – Balraj Bahri, The Founder of Khan Market’s Bahrisons Booksellers, Is No More General by The Delhi Walla - February 27, 2016February 27, 20164 A Khan Market icon. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi; the black & white photos belong to Bahrsions Booksellers] Balraj Bahri Malhotra, the founder of India's most successful independently owned bookstore, died on February 26, 2016. He was 87. A man of immensely polite manners, he was essentially a beautiful composition of grave voice and stately dignity. Born in 1928 to a bank manager in Malakwal in today’s Pakistan, Mr Bahri received his college education in Rawalpindi. He arrived in Delhi in 1947 as a 19-year-old Partition refugee and met his future wife, Saubhagya, at the Kingsway camp in North Delhi. In 1953 he opened a bookstore in one of the city’s new bazaars. He arranged the initial investment of 800
Netherfield Ball – Tea Scandal in ‘Somewhere in Delhi’, Venice City Parties by The Delhi Walla - February 26, 2016February 26, 201615 The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The man from the East was full of himself. He was the only oriental face--in flesh and blood, that is. There were also quite a few such faces to be seen on the soft-to-touch fabrics that hang elegantly from centuries-old wooden beams. The Delhi Walla was in the opening of Somewhere in Delhi: 17 Printings on Hand-Woven Khadi Muslin, an exhibition by designer Anna Gerotto and Indian blogger and photographer Mayank Austen Soofi (that’s me!). The evening was hosted inside a former asylum for the insane in San Servolo, an outlying island of this watery city. The panoramic windows of the stately hall looked to the signature towers of Piazza San Marco;
City Notice – Somewhere in Delhi, An Exhibition in Venice Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - February 25, 20164 [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Can you touch a Facebook post? Yes, you can. Friends, the first batch of my select Facebook posts--both photographs and texts--have been adapted by Venice-based designer Anna Gerotto into the soft texture of a hand-woven muslin fabric. The fabrics will be displayed at two venues in Venice. Details below. 17 Printings on hand-woven Khadi muslin (17 stampe su mussola Khadi tessuta a mano) Mayank Austen Soofi/fotografie e testi, Anna Gerotto Somewhere in Delhi è un progetto che materializza un incontro tra Mayank Austen Soofi, narratore e fotografo di Delhi e Anna Gerotto, designer veneziana residente part-time in Delhi. Dal 2009 Mayank Austen Soofi racconta, attraverso storie ed immagini, la complessa vita quotidiana di una città di 14 milioni di persone. Ogni giorno porta
Home Sweet Home – A Jewish Ghost’s House, Venice Ghetto Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - February 24, 2016February 24, 20160 In the world's first ghetto. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The top floor apartment shares its stairs with that of the women's section of the historic Italian synagogue. This is a very old house. The walls of the dark-wood stairs show large patches of bricks underneath. The Delhi Walla is in a late sixteenth century building in the ancient Jewish ghetto of Venice. The world's first ghetto is observing its 500th anniversary this year. Doctor Sergio Steffenoni, a retired psychiatrist (see above), lives with his wife in this dimly lit apartment. Everything is so submerged in silence here that the sounds of footsteps on the creaky wooden floor feel like a foreign intruder. The windows open to Campo del Ghetto Nuovo,
Delhi Proustians – Finding Marcel, Near Santi Giovanni, Venice Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - February 23, 2016February 23, 20160 The Italian Proust. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There he was. All of him. One afternoon The Delhi Walla was browsing at the Libreria Acqua Alta bookstore on Calle Lunga Santa Maria Formosa. The famous shop is near the Church of Santi Giovanni in Venice. Only a few customers were present. The black cat was seated on the cash counter, as always. It was raining outside. The bookstore has selections in Italian, French, German, Spanish and English languages. While walking past the Italian shelves, I spotted a boxed set. It showed a golden-haired woman reading a book. The title underneath the portrait said: Alla ricera del tempo perduto di Marcel Proust The box had seven hardbounds. One was titled La strada di Swann. There was no
Letter from Ballimaran – On My Final Home, By Poet Mirza Ghalib General by The Delhi Walla - February 23, 2016February 23, 20161 The old man who lost his way home. [Text and photos by Saon Bhattacharya] I have been accused of many vices in my time, but never have I been known to have mistaken the lane leading up to my own door! Yet that is what must have happened: Granted that my modest home is tucked within a particularly serpentine alley off the street of Ballimaran, and granted that I’m an old soul long past my expiry date—and yet I seem to have completely missed the dark and twisted Gali Qasim Jaan, as dank and dreary as a mud-spattered crow on a rainy day.... Oh for the monsoons of Dilli! The kohl-lined, pregnant clouds, the urgent peacock calls, and the earthen cups of steaming
Letter From The Venice Ghetto – Lucio De Capitani’s Readings, Parco Savorgnan Travel by The Delhi Walla - February 22, 2016February 22, 20161 On the world's first ghetto. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is a scholar of the world’s first ghetto—the ancient Jewish ghetto of Venice is observing its 500th anniversary this year. One late morning The Delhi Walla meets Lucio De Capitani at Parco Savorgnan, a public garden not far from the ghetto. Despite this being a liquid city, there is no water to be seen. An old palace blocks the view of the park from the canal. The decorative pools are dry. Seated on a bench, the 20-something PhD student says, “I’m studying the works of authors who travelled to distant places and tried to describe other people and cultures. Amitav Ghosh is one such writer. He went to Egypt, Burma,