City Hangout – Dilli Gate Graveyard, Near ITO Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - February 14, 20191 The Old Delhi underground. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An archipelago of graves scattered in a sea of grass This is as haunting as any graveyard, intensely evoking a sense of loss, impermanence, fragility and beauty. Dilli Gate Qabristan in ITO has a deeper resonance than most other cemeteries though. Since 1924, it is the final home of thousands of Old Delhi’s Muslim dwellers. Every grave here is a reminder of a life spent in the gallis, kuchas, mohallas and bazars of the Walled City. Not that the historic area is bereft of graveyards (Mehndiyan, Chameliyan, Tikona, Punjabiuya, Khwaja Baqibillah) but most Walled City gentry is likely to trace the final home of their departed ones to this qabristan. Indeed, the place
City Life – A Hotel Room, Paharganj Life by The Delhi Walla - February 12, 20190 The world inside a hotel room. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sunlight is streaming in through the blue curtains. The double bed is crowded with four pillows. A small coffee table looks lonesome with two glasses. An ash tray smells of cold cigarettes. And a chair by the window is overlooking the Main Bazar. A hotel room in Paharganj is like an escape from Delhi. The advantages of this backpacker’s district crammed with cheap hotels aren’t only for the backpackers to explore. College-going Delhiites often take up rooms here — sometimes for a day of intimacy with a friend, or just to cocoon themselves from the humdrum of daily life. There have been instances when Delhi University students put themselves up in
Mission Delhi – Vijay Kumar Sharma, Oxford Bookstore Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - February 11, 2019February 11, 20190 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Living on one’s own is not always easy. Bookshop staffer Vijay Kumar Sharma knows the feeling. “Sometimes I don’t feel like going back to my room at night, and wish I could sleep over in the bookshop itself,” he says during a lull at the Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place. Though as long as it’s not Diwali, Dusshera or some such festive season, with everyone joyously milling around with relatives and friends, “I don’t feel that lonely... after all, my room is filled with books.” In his late 30s, Mr Sharma lives by himself in a rented flat in west Delhi’s Janakpuri and reaches home by 11 pm
Mission Delhi – Sikander Aaquil, New Palam Vihar, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - February 9, 2019August 29, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Can a building contractor write poems? Why not! Here’s Sikander Aaquil of Gurgaon. “You will not believe but it’s true that my business helps refine my poetic sensibilities,” says the gentleman. Looking dapper in a crisp white pathan suit and a grey jacket, the poet explains how his daily interactions with construction labourers, for instance, takes him “closer to the hard realities of migrant life.” Mr Aaquil has been living with his family in a bungalow in New Palam Vihar for more than 20 years. This NCR suburb still partly has the appearance of a village. It is surrounded by farm fields teeming with a fresh crop of cauliflowers. Looking at
City Hangout – Foot-Over Bridge, Indraprastha Metro Station Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - February 9, 20191 Disconnected from the world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Buried in antiquity, the legendary city of Indraprastha is thought to have thrived near the Metro station bearing the same name. Archaeologists are still puzzling over the clues to this key city that appears in the epic Mahabharata. The Indraprastha Metro station itself feels as vague as the ancient city, with a footbridge suspended over a busy highway crammed with motorists trying in vain to get somewhere quickly. By contrast, there are people strolling across the bridge as languidly as visitors in a public park. Every so often, they spot glimpses of those silver-grey Metro coaches that appear unapproachable from this vantage point. Indeed, the bridge feels totally disconnected from the rest of
City Life – Labourer’s Backpack, Central Delhi Life by The Delhi Walla - February 8, 20190 A piece of working life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It looks like some sort of backpack, but it isn’t. “It’s called a pithalla, and without question makes it so much easier to carry heavy loads on my peeth (back),” explains labourer Suresh Kumar. The morning is still young, but this sturdy teenager has already lugged half-a-dozen sacks full of vegetables, each weighing about 50 kg, from a market in central Delhi to a waiting rickshaw. In all this, the pithalla is vital. “It ensures I’ve got a firm grip on the bag and that it doesn’t fall off,” he says. You might call pithallas a kind of body armour, but they aren’t available on the open market. The workers usually make their own
City Landmark – Ice Stall, Gurgaon Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 7, 2019February 7, 20190 A journey to Iceland. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Iceland is far towards the polar north of the globe, and the flight tickets aren’t cheap to its capital, Reykjavik. But then there’s another land of ice, and that is Rafiq Ali’s Barf Depot. It’s a roadside stall in Gurgaon’s Sector 14. Here you find ice for sale. “One silli for 400 rupees,” says stall owner Muhammed Sameer. The young man explains that a single silli, or a slab of ice, weighs about 40 kg. The ice establishment is older than most high-rises in this Futuristic City. It was set up by Mr Sameer’s parents some 40 years ago. This cold afternoon the counter is looking bare with just a small block of
City Food – Mathew’s Masala Dosa, RK Puram Food by The Delhi Walla - February 5, 20190 The real dosa. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s tough to find a masala dosa in Delhi that isn’t compromised with the city’s over-spiced aesthetics — the dosa served in the Indian Coffee House has a potato filling fit enough for a fiery Lajpat Nagar samosa. But weep not. Here’s one of the best places to experience authentic masala dosa. Head to Mathew’s Café in RK Puram, the capital’s mini Tamil Nadu. The owner, Isaac Mathew, 62, however, is not a Tamilian. A native of Ernakulam in Kerala, he arrived in Delhi after finishing school and set up this roadside shack in 1983, just outside the Delhi Tamil Sangam community centre. Anyone used to the real dosa will find no surprises here.
City Moment – Guns ‘N Books, Central Delhi Moments by The Delhi Walla - February 4, 2019February 4, 20192 The memorable instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] On just about any day of the week, this second-hand bookstore in Central Delhi is packed with rather bored shoppers. Maybe browsing for an old 2018 diary for some reason. Or, perhaps, on the lookout for a tempting Tarla Dalal recipe collection that the late beloved auntie had warmly recommended. This afternoon, however, is very different. The store is awash with armed security men because of political rallies nearby. A pause between events is now giving the lads the chance to do something on their own. Generally, these categories of personnel somehow seem faceless when they are spotted in a bunch. The same can be true for any group of people, like suited bankers
City Food – Snack Cart Pots, Mathura Road Food by The Delhi Walla - February 3, 20190 The great Indian pateeli show. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You would expect to find this kind of huge brass container on display in the museums on Rajasthan kings instead of a Delhi pavement stall. This pateeli for storing dishes dwarfs just about everything here on the busy Mathura Road, like a big object that fell from the sky. “I had to pay 15,000 rupees for it,” says vendor Shiv Shankar, who sells chhole subzi and parathas all day long from his modest cart. “You can’t buy a pateeli like this anywhere in Delhi.” This kind of utensil — if you’d call it that — is custom-made in UP factories in Moradabad and Meerut; and only rarely spotted at other snack carts