Photo Essay - Bahrisons Booksellers After Balraj Bahri's Passing Away, Khan Market

Photo Essay – Bahrisons Booksellers After Balraj Bahri’s Passing Away, Khan Market

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.)…

City Moment - The Artist Sits Beside His Biography, Venice Ghetto

City Moment – The Artist Sits Beside His Biography, Venice Ghetto

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…

City Landmark -- Emilio Piacentini's Wood Carving Shop, Venice Ghetto

City Landmark — Emilio Piacentini’s Wood Carving Shop, Venice Ghetto

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…

City Notice - Balraj Bahri, The Founder of Khan Market's Bahrisons Booksellers, Is No More

City Notice – Balraj Bahri, The Founder of Khan Market’s Bahrisons Booksellers, Is No More

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….

Netherfield Ball – Tea Scandal in 'Somewhere in Delhi', Venice

Netherfield Ball – Tea Scandal in ‘Somewhere in Delhi’, Venice

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…

City Notice - Somewhere in Delhi, An Exhibition in Venice

City Notice – Somewhere in Delhi, An Exhibition in Venice

[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…

Home Sweet Home - A Jewish Ghost's House, Venice Ghetto

Home Sweet Home – A Jewish Ghost’s House, Venice Ghetto

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…

Delhi Proustians - Finding Marcel, Near Santi Giovanni, Venice

Delhi Proustians – Finding Marcel, Near Santi Giovanni, Venice

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…

Letter from Ballimaran - On My Final Home, By Poet Mirza Ghalib

Letter from Ballimaran – On My Final Home, By Poet Mirza Ghalib

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…

Letter From The Venice Ghetto - Lucio De Capitani's Readings, Parco Savorgnan

Letter From The Venice Ghetto – Lucio De Capitani’s Readings, Parco Savorgnan

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…