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Month: March 2017

City Food – Lallan’s Chai, Galli Choori Wallan, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 2

The best chai shack. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The only displeasing thing about Delhi’s pavement chai stalls is that the chai happens to be too milky, too sugary — to some of us at least. That problem could be easily rectified by asking the man at the stall to make the chai really tagda, strong. The resultant brew is (almost) always perfect. The camera-toting flâneurs, of course, don’t hang out at these dusty street chai stalls for the humble chai (they can always go for flies-free High Tea at big hotels). The real pull of these places is to taste the flavour of the unique hyperlocal worlds that these tea stalls are parts of and which they also help create. One

City Moment – He & She & Their Short Illustrated Story, Khan Market’s Café Turtle

by The Delhi Walla - 5

The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He was sitting opposite her across a table. She was with iced cappuccino. He was with yogurt and muesli parfait. One afternoon The Delhi Walla was at Café Turtle in Khan Market. She was looking at him. He was looking at her. She would suddenly cast her eyes downwards. He would suddenly cast his eyes downwards. She would then again raise her eyes to look at him. He would then again raise his eyes to look at her. She was jotting down something on a piece of white paper. He was jotting down something on a piece of white paper. I looked closer. She was drawing his portrait. He was drawing her portrait. It was a beautiful moment. Two

City Season – Spring Bloom of Two Bougainvillea Trees, Lodhi Garden

by The Delhi Walla - 2

The gift of a brief season. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s like a valley of flowers, pink flowers The Delhi Walla means. And it is the most amazing sight in Delhi at this season. The two bougainvillea trees in central Delhi’s Lodhi Garden never disappoint at this time of the year. After Holi, when the winter cold is just a memory and the summer’s heat is yet to hound us in its full wrath, these two trees dress up themselves in a most fanciful bloom that has to be seen to be believed. (I wrote on them last year, too, here.) The trees are situated close to the duck pond. From a distance, they appear like friendly giants dressed in pink.

Atget’s Corner – 1011-1015, Delhi Photos

by The Delhi Walla - 0

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 1011 to 1015. 1011. Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah 1012.

Mission Delhi – Salma, Lodhi Road

by The Delhi Walla - 3

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She cuts quite a figure. A woman riding a cart all by herself — very often a little child is seen sitting on the cart while she pedals along. This is a rare sight in Delhi and each time The Delhi Walla spots Salma — and it is always on Lodhi Road — I instinctively look again to confirm the sight. Once I saw plastic flowers decked around her pull cart’s handle bar. Quite a few residents of upscale Nizamuddin East, a nearby neighbourhood, have also spotted Salma with her cart around the same place in central Delhi and they all told me of being struck by her presence. In

Home Sweet Home – Late Writer Khushwant Singh’s Home, Sujan Singh Park

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A whole world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is where he died exactly three years ago. The Delhi Walla is at E-49, Khushwant Singh’s red-brick apartment at the colonial-era Sujan Singh Park in central Delhi. Privileged members of Delhi’s high society used to plot and scheme to get an invite to his drawing room. The author of classics such as Train to Pakistan, Delhi: A Novel and the two-volume A History of the Sikhs had lived up to a ripe old age of 99. Mr Singh also edited The Hindustan Times. His drawing room was one of the most sought-after places in the Capital. Every evening, he gave audience to friends, ministers, intellectuals, industrialists, authors, and admirers, especially if these admirers happened

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Serene Kasim, Bangalore

by The Delhi Walla - 1

The 141st death. [Text by Serene Kasim; photo by Avinash Kaur] All her life Serene Kasim was told that she always looked like she should be somewhere else. Hers was an unremarkable life marked by a remarkable sense of restless dissatisfaction. Living in the moment wasn’t for her. She was always waiting for moments that never arrived and people who never came. The greatest (perhaps, only) love of her life went unexpressed. Her potential went untapped (or so everyone said). She always seemed on the verge of something that never materialized. Perhaps her one accomplishment was avoiding the trap and trappings of matrimony in a society obsessed to the point of madness with the idea of marriage. If there was a Nobel Prize for

Photo Essay – The Lonely Foreign Woman and Other Women in the Italian Unification Celebrations, Italian Embassy Grounds

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Women watching. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The beautiful people of the capital’s diplomatic world trickled in one after another. One evening The Delhi Walla attended the Italian Unification Celebration on the grassy grounds of the Italian embassy in Central Delhi. A foreign woman outshone everyone in a blue sari. Curiously, she was wandering around all by herself--she looked melancholic. Another woman wore a dazzling white pearl necklace, or perhaps the necklace wore the woman. One elderly woman came with her elegant walking stick. Another very elderly woman in a pious-looking sari was crowned by a hair-style too grand for even a Maharani—somebody said she was Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter (see photo 10 below). Also spotted: a good old braid, the only one

City Life – Amir Dehlavi’s Radio Ritual, Haji Hotel

by The Delhi Walla - 1

The ultimate radio star. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Over the years many of us have established a deep bond with our smart phones. Many of us have an emotional connection with our TV too, and some of us even get sentimental about our favourite radio jockeys spread across various FM channels. And then there is an elderly poet in the Walled City of Delhi, who has built an extraordinarily meaningful and lasting relationship with a small hand-held radio. For 40 years, Amir Dehlavi has been following the same routine day after day. From two in the afternoon to half-past-five in the evening, he remains in the company of his radio and nobody is permitted to disturb his schedule. The Delhi Walla

City Nature – The Spring Flowers of Semal, Subz Burj Tomb

by The Delhi Walla - 2

This season's prince. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Basically it is just a soft thud on the grassy ground—The Delhi Walla means the ceaseless falling of red semal flowers. The blooming of the semal marks the arrival of the brief spring season in Delhi. It is that unusual time in the city when it is not hot, not cold, and also not humid. It is just perfect and the red semal flowers epitomize this shift towards the ideal. I'm walking under the three semal trees at the Subz Burj monument in central Delhi. A 16th century tomb to an unidentified figure in history, the monument is also known as Neela Gumbad due to its blue dome. Today, the memorial has been reduced to

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