City Landmark – Balkrishna Shivram Moonje, Outside New Delhi Railway Station Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 31, 20180 The statue outside the station. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One of the many fates that can befall a human is immortaliation — in the shape and form of a statue. Chances are nobody will glance twice at it. Consider, if you will, a particular statue just outside New Delhi railway station that almost everybody is likely to spot on walking out of the station. The figure is wearing a long overcoat over a dhoti. He has a cap and a long beard and his right arm is holding a cane. Alas, the face doesn’t ring any bells at all. And, this afternoon, the bronze figure is surrounded by busy vendors hawking everything from grapes to goggles. Most of them have no idea
Mission Delhi – Sanjay Das, Central Delhi Market Lane General by The Delhi Walla - October 28, 20180 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The other day this beggar found himself walking along a footpath in Kashmere Gate thinking about lunch when a careless motor-cyclist suddenly smashed into him hard. Without any warning whatsoever. “I fell down and hit the ground, bleeding,” recalls Sanjay Das,” and my very first thought was to get hold of the biker to pay for injuries… But he ran away.” At length, two friendly pedestrians helped him to his feet; and Mr Das was then treated outside Gurudwara Seesganj at Chandni Chowk where some Sikh volunteers regularly dress the wounds of the needy for free. Two days later Mr Das face is still bandaged, with his kurta still
City Faith – An Unknown Mystic’s Roadside Grave, Zakir Hussain Marg Faith by The Delhi Walla - October 25, 20181 The essence of an anonymous grave. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Most of central Delhi used to be a jungle. It is said that dacoits roamed between Mehrauli in the south and Shahjahanabad (aka the old Delhi) in the north. The forest was also home to Muslim ascetics who lived there to avoid the crowds. When such a holy man died, he was usually buried in the same place where he had lived and meditated all his spiritual life. Some of these memorials became famous Sufi shrines; most were lost with time. However, a few graves have miraculously continued to survive, if only anonymously. One such piece of the past is an unknown person’s tombstone along Zakir Hussain Marg. Actually, Zakir Hussain
Home Sweet Home – A Lady’s Balcony, South Delhi Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 20180 Her private oasis. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She’s readily agreed to give The Delhi Walla a guided tour of her pleasing balcony, but with a condition. No snapping her face photos, so she can remain anonymous. For a very good reason that is disclosed later in this dispatch. At this very moment she is gesturing towards the frangipani on her charming balcony, “that I got from friends who recently moved to Buenos Aires,” she explains. “And, yes, I know it’s strange... no flowers in it. And they’re blooming just about everywhere in Delhi except right here.” As a designer with her own label, she’s furnished her south Delhi perch with an elegant wooden breakfast table, along with a cane chair padded
Mission Delhi – Govind, Sector 6, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 22, 20180 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The afternoon air is warm despite hints of the approaching winter. He is sweating profusely as he sits on the stone plinth under the shade of a leafy tree here in Gurugram’s Sector 6. Govind is a labourer. His wife is also a labourer. “We both are working in different sites today,” he says, explaining, “Hers is in a different sector.” The couple usually gets assignments together but this time their contractor assigned them to separate “gangs”. It is lunch break and Govind will eat alone — he won’t be able to join his wife. “Most days we eat saath-saath (together).” The steel lunchbox box is stuffed with many rotis
City Food – Maha Samosa, Delite Cinema Food by The Delhi Walla - October 20, 20180 Delhi's biggest samosa. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] What is Delhi without its tombs? What is a samosa without its potatoes? Boil it, mash it, mix in the spices, scoop it up into a maida casing, deep-fry and serve it with tamarind chutney. But although the potato and samosa are almost synonymous, there is more to a samosa than the tuber. A few stalls in Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk have samosas with peas alone. A restaurant in the colonial-era Connaught Place has a special samosa filled with buttery chickpeas. The cramped quarters in Ballimaran have stalls selling minced meat samosas, with the vegetarians gamely opting for a spicy paneer filling. Mithai stores in Bengali Market have tiny triangles of golden brown
City Walk – Full Moon Street, Asiad Village Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 18, 2018October 18, 20180 The dream stroll. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There’s something you shouldn’t miss before planning to leave Delhi forever. A night stroll along Asiad Village Road leads into one of South Delhi’s best-kept secrets: a virtual forest of trees nearly gobbling up the roadway itself that at night becomes a setting straight out of a magic-realism novel. Suddenly, you’re not in Delhi at all. (Even though you are.) Perhaps some exotic forest very, very far away? When this unique excursion coincides with a full moon the scenery becomes almost ethereal. Street lighting struggles to beam downwards because so many tree limbs are webbing this space; while tiny leaves on a neem suddenly appear melancholy because of such dim lighting. In other words, the
City Monument – Dilli Gate, Central Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 20180 The ignored one. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dilli Gate is one of those great monuments that are taken for granted and seldom gushed over by guidebook junkies. Instagrammers too give it a royal ignore. Built more than 400 years ago, it’s one of the few intact gateways still standing sentry at the ruins of the Old Delhi’s wall. Most of the wall itself is, of course, long since gone. But Delhi Gate stands out, like an indifferent rock, awkwardly protruding from a fast-flowing stream of traffic. So much has changed since it was built as one of the 14 gateways, guarding the wall of the city set up by Emperor Shahjahan in 1638. The Mughals are gone. Most gateways too are
Mission Delhi – Payal Singhal, Connaught Place Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 15, 20180 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some good folk just can’t leave the house without a book tucked away in the rucksack. That’s the way it is. Take the case of Payal Singhal, who readily confesses falling into this category. For years she’s lived happily with English classics like the Bronté sisters, and particularly Charlotte Bronté’s Jane Eyre. Then something happened. Last year--she tells The Delhi Walla in Connaught Place-- “I was browsing around a book stall and happened upon Rabindranath Tagore’s novel Chokher Bali in English translation.” She snapped it up immediately. It’s the very first novel written by an Indian author this 25-year-old has devoured as part of her pleasure reading. “And of course I
City Hangout – Swirly Staircase, Satyam Plaza, Gurgaon Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 2018August 29, 20220 More than just a fire exit. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There was a time when the staircase was not reduced to the status of a mere fire exit. Although it is difficult to believe this truth in a place like Gurgaon where residential apartments, high-rise offices and gigantic shopping malls offer multi-floor navigation exclusively through escalators and elevators, with the poor staircases hidden behind discreetly-positioned service doors painted with the words... well, Fire Exit. So it is delightful to find a shopping complex in the heart of the city that offers staircase as a principal attraction of its architecture — right in the front. The building itself — it came up about two decades ago — is not even close to