City Landmark - Ram Bagh Mukti Dham, Khandsa Village, Gurgaon

City Landmark – Ram Bagh Mukti Dham, Khandsa Village, Gurgaon

A cremation ground in an unusual setting. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A soft warm breeze is blowing with a sai-sai sound through the tree leaves. The golden sunflowers are blooming radiantly in the hedges. The ground is…

Mission Delhi - Ram Iqbal, Pamposh Enclave

Mission Delhi – Ram Iqbal, Pamposh Enclave

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is a tailor with a footpath stall in south Delhi’s Pamposh Enclave, working with a foot-operated table sewing machine. Nothing unique about that. He…

City Hangout - Music Cassette Shop, Madrasa Hussain Baksh Street

City Hangout – Music Cassette Shop, Madrasa Hussain Baksh Street

The pre-CD age. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] CDs… what’s that? The music-streaming millennials might ask. Even so, some of them might have had a firsthand memory of those discs, dating back to the early years of their…

City Landmark - Old Staircase, Connaught Place

City Landmark – Old Staircase, Connaught Place

Pickled architecture. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Despite being such a well-explored shopping district, Connaught Place is astonishing in its scope of picturesque spots still waiting to be discovered. Take that amazing winding staircase in H Block, Outer…

City Season - Bougainvillea, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon

City Season – Bougainvillea, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon

Season’s colors. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There are few respites from Delhi’s unforgiving summer. One is the blooming of amaltas flowers—but that will happen only around the month of May. The other is the widespread blossoming of…

City Moment - Get-Together of Childhood Friends, Central Delhi

City Moment – Get-Together of Childhood Friends, Central Delhi

Long time, no see. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Repeated hugging. Cries of delight. And now, click-click-click of group selfies. Three friends of childhood are finally meeting after a gap of nine long years. Sheetal Gurung is from…

City Season - Raluca's Spring, Green Park

City Season – Raluca’s Spring, Green Park

A European’s Delhi spring. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Smelling a pinkish powder-puff (calliandra) flower, Raluca Sidon, a visitor from Bucharest, Romania, says, “I’m seeing it for the first time. It doesn’t grow in my country. I think…

City Food - Tandoori Chai, Zahra’s Restaurant & Café

City Food – Tandoori Chai, Zahra’s Restaurant & Café

An out-of-the-box tea. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] We all know about tandoori chicken and tandoori roti. But… tandoori chai? That’s more or less what they’re serving at an eatery in that cutely clumsy New Friends Colony Market…

Mission Delhi - Waris Ram, Karol Bagh

Mission Delhi – Waris Ram, Karol Bagh

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s so appallingly early on this cold morning, but Waris Ram is already up and about, walking along a deserted street in the west Delhi…

Our Self-Written Obituaries - Nargis Hussair, University of Hyderabad

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nargis Hussair, University of Hyderabad

The 254th death. [Text and photos by Nargis Hussair] Nargis Hussair, 27, died on a hot summer evening. They discovered her in the green pond near her mother’s house in Kerala where she spent most of her childhood. Earlier that…