Atget’s Corner – 991-995, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - December 31, 2016December 31, 20161 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 1,00,000 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 991 to 995. 991. Hauz Khas Village 992. Malviya
City Landmark – The Walled City Café & Lounge, Chhatta Sheikh Mangloo Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 29, 2016December 29, 20164 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. The Walled City Café & Lounge stands like a happy defiance to the jaded idea of the Walled City. In this claustrophobic universe of neighborhood mosques, windowless homes and dilapidated monuments where every self-conscious landmark pretends to be founded at least a hundred years ago, this airy café proudly proclaims at its entrance that it was established way back in 2016. Make no mistake. This first-floor island of serenity is firmly confined within the traditional elements of a typical Old Delhi mansion--it is actually
Netherfield Ball – Singer Madhumita Bose Awes All the Poets at Ghalib’s Tea Party Except for a Wahabi Short Story Writer, Ghalib Academy City Parties by The Delhi Walla - December 28, 2016December 28, 20160 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 the eyes are getting increasingly hysterical for the fairy-tale sight of Madhumita Bose, the ghazal singer with a respectable reputation to keep her admirers writhing in silent agony over tortuously long waits. One evening The Delhi Walla attends a tea party hosted to celebrate Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib's 219th birth anniversary at Ghalib Academy in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. The evening's most profound rumor is that the aforementioned biskuts have been ordered from a bakery in Bhogal. The men are attired very unprose-like. The most breathtaking
City Food – Daulat ki Chaat, Walled City Food by The Delhi Walla - December 27, 20163 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 is as fleeting as an early-morning dream. Made of buffalo’s milk, Daulat ki Chaat, a street specialty in Old Delhi, doesn’t belong to the establishment. You are not likely to see it in mithai shops or in table-and-chair eateries. Sold exclusively on wooden carts or on three-legged mobile stands called tarona, its sellers are mostly migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi’s signature street, The Delhi Walla met Hukum Singh, a Daulat ki Chaat vendor who hails from Moradabad, Uttar
City Walk – Towards Flaubert’s Tomb, Cimetière Monumental de Rouen Walks by The Delhi Walla - December 25, 2016December 25, 20161 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 this city, a street, an avenue and more than one café are named after this novelist. His father's house, where he spent his childhood, now exists as a museum. His grand statue stands in the city centre. I'm looking for Flaubert's tomb, however. He died more than hundred years ago. Like the town itself, the cemetery is small and it cannot be difficult to trace the path to the burial grounds of the Flaubert family. Indeed, there are boards pointing the direction to the
Photo Essay – Stealing a Letter and Doing Pushups at Marcel Proust’s Tomb, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris Delhi Proustians Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - December 23, 2016December 23, 20164 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 Lost Time. I have brought a pale white rose for him from a florist outside the cemetery. Just before stepping into the graveyard, I had stopped at a café for a cup of allongé where I wondered if I would be able to find Marcel Proust amid hundreds of graves. It is a very cold grey day at Père-Lachaise. I walk along a sequence of cobbled passageways lined with tombs of varying sizes and designs. Sometimes I stop to read the inscriptions on the
Atget’s Corner – 986-990, Delhi Photos Delhi Pics by The Delhi Walla - December 21, 20160 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 1,00,000 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 986 to 990. 986. Near Akshardham Temple 987. Lodhi
City Moment – Seeing Proust’s Soul in a Solitary Seagull, Cabourg, France Moments by The Delhi Walla - December 20, 2016December 20, 20162 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 In Search of Lost Time. It is cold and misty. There is no one on the shore but a few seagulls. The solitary seagull continues to look on at the waves with a gaze so intent and precise that it could be that of Proust himself. Like Proust, the bird appears to be a great observer of details. A few minutes later, the spirit that evokes the feeling of Proust vanishes. The seagull flaps its wings. It then flies over further ahead on to the
City Landmark – Proust’s Bed & the Grand Hotel, Cabourg, France Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 18, 2016January 4, 20173 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 Walla is at room no. 414 at The Grand Hotel. A place more substantial in imagination than in reality, this hotel in the seaside town of Cabourg is the setting of some of the most memorable scenes of Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time. Proust experienced the life here and distilled those impressions in his novel. It was amid the chandeliers of the Grand that the fashionable society of Paris would gather in the summer. This freezing December evening, however, Cabourg is as
Home Sweet Home -Patrice Louis’s Proustian Homestead, Combray Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - December 16, 2016December 17, 20161 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 great significance in Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time, and it boasts of four hair-dressers, four bakeries, one rather ordinary bookstore, and the Marcel Proust Museum that is visited by Proustians from across the world. The other place in Combray that resonates with Proust is Mr Louis’s book-lined residence on Rue Ronsard. Mr Louis runs a blog on Proust titled Le fou de Proust, which literally means The Proust Mad Man. Indeed, he seems to be a little mad--the day I meet him,