City Hangout – Monsoon Bucket List, Around Town
Best rainy day places. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A little tap on the window-pane, as though something had struck it, followed by a plentiful light falling sound, as of grains of sand being sprinkled from a window…
City Landmark – Mansion With Seven Doors, Galli Chooriwallan
The magic of a cobwebbed house. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s as clear as a smog-free daylight that Snow White and her seven brothers lived in Old Delhi, more specifically here in Galli Chooriwallan. This aged mansion…
City Faith – Bibi Fatima Sam’s Sufi Dargah, Kaka Nagar
The world of a woman Sufi. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Women are allowed to enter here. The entry to the shrines of many sufi saints in Delhi are unjustly barred to women. So it is liberating to…
Mission Delhi – Kali Charan, Opposite Vyapar Kendra Market, Gurgaon
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sometimes you don’t need Freud to interpret a dream, or so it seems. Take Kali Charan. He is deep in sleep. May be this is…
City Landmark – Anil Book Corner, Connaught Place
A bookstore’s longtime life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Buying books isn’t at all out of fashion. (Just ask book-loving online shoppers like The Delhi Walla.) But bookstores are another story altogether. In recent years, they’ve been shutting…
City Nature – The Magic of Portulaca Flowers, Lodhi Gardens
A border of beauty. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This polite sprinkling of colours ought to be a sari border. The composition is so exquisitely fragile that you fear a strong breeze might destroy the arrangement. This flowery…
Mission Delhi – Muhammed Haroon, Galli Chooriwallan
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Life’s all stress. You may figure that out merely by scanning the faces of fellow commuters in the Metro. But Muhammed Haroon has found an…
City Food – Chicken Samosa, Maxim’s Bakery, Kailash Colony
Samosa with a difference. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] We all know that the samosa is the ideal graveyard for the potato. But there have been experimental rebellions now and then. A few eateries in Chandni Chowk serve…
City Life – The Silicon Valley Couple, Near Cyberhub, Gurgaon
A life of their choosing. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One day, two lovers fond of reading, writing and traveling give up their day-jobs and start living together to read, write and travel. Fairy tale, right? No. Meet…
City Style – Hafizullah’s Corduroy, Old Delhi
Style in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Many people flock to Old Delhi for Red Fort or Chandni Chowk. If only they can spot the equally unique Hafizullah. This 80-year-old retired darzi, or tailor, is the…
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