Atget’s Corner – 1056-1060, Delhi Photos

Atget’s Corner – 1056-1060, 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 Food - The Best Almond Milk, Quality Dairy & Paneer Bhandar

City Food – The Best Almond Milk, Quality Dairy & Paneer Bhandar

The rich elixir. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There’s no getting around it. The Delhi Walla loves those sleepy markets where an entire day can be whiled away and where time seems to charmingly come to a halt….

City Hangout - A Lonely Railway Station, Sarojini Nagar Market

City Hangout – A Lonely Railway Station, Sarojini Nagar Market

Where few trains stop. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You may think that this lonely little railway station is somewhere out there in the hinterland — one of those bleak little stops that express trains pass by in…

City Library - Late Leila Seth's Private Study, Noida Sector 15A

City Library – Late Leila Seth’s Private Study, Noida Sector 15A

A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla is in the private study of Justice Leila Seth, who died four months ago (5 May 2017). This quiet room, redolent with memory, “was her heart and…

Mission Delhi - Deepak Kumar, Outside Vidha Sabha Metro Station

Mission Delhi – Deepak Kumar, Outside Vidha Sabha Metro Station

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla can’t cycle more than 30 minutes on an exercise bike, but rickshaw pullers somehow manage constant pedalling day in, day out. What’s…

City Food - The Perfectly Impure Dosa, Indian Coffee House

City Food – The Perfectly Impure Dosa, Indian Coffee House

The definitive North Indian version. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The romantics celebrate the Indian Coffee House for its turbaned waiters and torn rexine sofas (which, alas, have been replaced by steel chairs). The idealists, who believe that…

Home Sweet Home – Shamim us Din 's Cluttered Room, Gali Mochan

Home Sweet Home – Shamim us Din ‘s Cluttered Room, Gali Mochan

A whole world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi’s Shamim ud Din loves machinery. So much so that he decided, years ago, that he needed a tiny dark room near the family residence to store it in….

City Hangout - Gallery of Musical Instruments, Rabindra Bhavan, Mandi House

City Hangout – Gallery of Musical Instruments, Rabindra Bhavan, Mandi House

Music as objects. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here, you’ll make friends with the Dama from Tripura, which looks like a tapering dholak (drum). And there’s the Sanitar, a kind of lute from Kashmir, with a hollow resonator…

City List - Daily-Wage Carpenter's Kit, Sadar Bazaar

City List – Daily-Wage Carpenter’s Kit, Sadar Bazaar

Delhi by list. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You may know what it’s like at Central Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar, so congested you can literally crash into somebody. The Delhi Walla almost stumbled over Muhammed Jaafar, a carpenter sitting…

Julia Child in Delhi – Author Pushpesh Pant Makes His Cool Mutton Khichri, Gurgaon

Julia Child in Delhi – Author Pushpesh Pant Makes His Cool Mutton Khichri, Gurgaon

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Nobody dares to offers khichri to guests. This rice-and-dal combination is best eaten in complete privacy, as comfort food, or when one is suffering from an upset…