Photo Essay – Seeking Big City Solitude, Around Town Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - October 11, 20184 The love of anonymity. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Loneliness is a horror, as poet Emily Dickinson famously wrote, not to be surveyed. But have you ever felt its icy sensation on your skin? In the crowded city I live in (Delhi), loneliness is everywhere. It is a young pensive-looking woman sitting on the steps of Rajauri Garden metro station. It is a grey-haired man crouching on the grassy grounds of Lodhi Garden. It is a silhouette in Central Park, a broken soul at Hazrat Nizamuddin’s dargah. Loneliness is a coolie in a railway station, a society lady in a living room. It is even a bird, or a dog. It is the woman who sells jasmine flowers at night in the
City Food – Jane Austen’s Chai Stall, Bharat Ram Road Food by The Delhi Walla - October 10, 20180 The love of pavement tea. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If British writer Jane Austen was still alive and happened to stumble across this unusual tea stall she’d probably express ardent admiration for its owner. Mahaveer runs this unique stall where chai is served in dainty kettles, akin to a drawing room scene in one of Ms Austen’s famed novels. These kettles seem to hark from another era but in fact “they’re just five years old,” says Mahaveer. “They break all the time, but you can get new ones at Azad Market.” But there’s more to this well-known stall on Delhi’s Bharat Ram Road. It’s one of the very few establishments where chai is brewed on a coal-fired stove instead
City Landmark – A Civic Mortuary, Gurgaon Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 8, 20180 A face of life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A yard lined with rooms, a small temple under a banyan tree and a few bare hospital-like stretchers. This is not a place you would like to visit even in your worst nightmare, but this too, is a part of our world. This is Gurgaon’s only civic mortuary, or murdaghar, where dead bodies are brought for post-mortem examinations. One of the rooms houses the office of the special forensic officer. It is morning and no dead body is here presently, giving the visitor ample time to observe the place. The walls of the yard are plastered with the ads of eye donation banks. The notice on a water cooler informs that it was installed
Mission Delhi – Bano, Hazrat Sarmad Shahid’s Dargah Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 6, 20180 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Over the last few days, she’s experienced a pain in her legs; and finally decided to get a tube of medication from a government hospital after standing in a very long line. “It’ll be ok,” smiles Bano, a homeless woman who always starts her day with prayers at this Sufi shrine, right across the Jama Masjid mosque. Now in her 60s, she came to Delhi years and years ago from Bihar. She’s lived on the same footpath since then. But Bano doesn’t think of herself as being alone, out there on the streets. “You must understand, I know all the good people on my pavement," she tells The Delhi
City Landmark – Wali’s Hair-Cutting Saloon, Bazaar Chitli Qabar Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 4, 20180 The heart of the Walled City. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi has all sorts of places you’ll visit when it’s high time to feel good about yourself. Perhaps the stone steps of a good old Jain temple? Another choice is Wali’s Unisex Saloon in Bazar Chitli Qabar that literally exudes calm. Established long ago but renovated only a few years ago, its ambience is personified by the owner himself. Father to a young girl, Waseem Ilahi is always friendly, never intrusive, whose skilled hands move steadily and discreetly. He draws you into quiet conversation without venturing into polarising subjects such as politics that could get patrons worked up. “Seven generations of my family have lived in Delhi,” says the soft-spoken Mr
City Food – Mango Pickle Walla, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - October 3, 2018October 3, 20180 A pickle vendor. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s hardly a secret that Delhi abounds with hawkers selling just about everything imaginable. Such as toothbrushes made from Neem twigs. Then we have Raju’s homemade pickles packed in a metal tub tied to his bicycle's carrier. Unlike most other sellers, the 52-year-old man doesn’t need to advertise his wares. They’re in steady demand. The spicy smell invading an entire lane is so intense that passersby may suddenly yearn for a nice pickle and parathas breakfast. Raju explains he got into the business a decade ago “when I spotted a man in my village selling pickles.” This looked like a worthwhile enterprise, “and I thought it would work particularly well in Delhi because this
City Hangout – Emu Sighting, Vasant Vihar Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - October 1, 2018October 1, 20185 Somewhere in Australia. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Silent leafy lanes and shiny chauffeur-driven cars. Gracious bungalows and embassies of remote-seeming countries like Eritrea and Gabon. And lots and lots of trees — in parks and in private gardens and along broad roads that might be the closest our city have to neighbourhood boulevards. Vasant Vihar doesn’t really feel like a part of India. And as it happens, it isn’t. Technically located in south Delhi, it is an offshore enclave of the Commonwealth of Australia. You don’t believe it? Then try explaining how these two emus ended up here? Nowhere else in Delhi will this Australian native be spotted, pottering around so freely. And The Delhi Walla is not counting those caged creatures