The Delhi Walla

The New Yorker – “All of his (The Delhi Walla’s) work together may add up to one of the most eccentric and encyclopedic ground-level portraits of a megacity in the Internet age.”

City Series – Sudhir Pratap Singh in Delhi, We the Isolationists (366th Corona Diary)

City Series – Sudhir Pratap Singh in Delhi, We the Isolationists (366th Corona Diary)

June 13, 2020 · by The Delhi Walla · in Corona Diary

Our corona diary.

[Text and photo by Sudhir Pratap Singh]

I close my eyes in self-isolation from corona… and I see
damp Odhnas on the clothesline in my village home
flowy, diaphanous drapes of yellow, red, magenta

I feel the cotton graze my face and palms
a chilly peck in the forgiving Rajasthan mornings
little me, cousins running carefree in the sunny aangan

my anchor as I struggle to meditate in Delhi
adulting with compounding anxieties, missing dialogue and ungratefulness towards worldy successes

I confess, the lockdown shelters my timid soul
from braving through the fast life
and each extension, a reprieve
I’ll miss closing my eyes

“We the Isolationists” series urges folks from any part of the world to share a brief diary starting with “I close my eyes in my self-isolation from Corona… and I see…” Not more than 100 words. With a horizontal-sized selfie, along with your city name… please mail to me at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com.

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The blogger is a devotee of Sufi Saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Author Arundhati Roy

The New Yorker on The Delhi Walla

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-delhi-wallas-visions-of-a-possibly-vanishing-india

“Soofi says that Proust is his favorite writer, and his project has, over the years, taken on an increasingly Proustian quality. He has been passing in and out of the same neighborhoods for more than a decade, documenting the minutest social and cultural changes… “–The New Yorker

The New Review, The Guardian, UK

“… Mayank Austen Soofi is street-spiritual as well as funny, engaging and wise.”

GQ India

With 2,748 posts (plus over 19,500 images on Instagram), it (The Delhi Walla) features the Delhi you should see, the Delhi that you never see, the Delhi that lies forgotten and sometimes even the Delhi that will come to be.

The Caravan

“The Delhi Walla is one of the city’s best-known flâneurs.”

Time Out Delhi

“The Delhi Walla is a one-man encyclopedia of the city.”

The Guardian

“The Delhi Walla is a celebration of the food, culture and books of India’s capital.”

Biography of The Delhi Walla

Since 2007, Mayank Austen Soofi has been collecting hundreds of stories taking place in Delhi, through writing and photography, for his acclaimed website The Delhi Walla. Every day, Mayank walks around the city with his camera and notebook to track down the part of extraordinary that exists in the seemingly mundane aspects of urban lives. By exploring and documenting the streets, buildings, houses, cuisines, traditions and people of Delhi, his work is also an attempt to give the megalopolis an intimate voice, and to capture the passing of time in this otherwise restlessly changing city.

Mayank is also a daily columnist for Hindustan Times newspaper, and the author of ‘Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District’ (published by Penguin) and the four-volume ‘The Delhi Walla’ guidebooks (HarperCollins).

Mayank Austen Soofi compulsively publishes texts and photos on his website, Facebook and Instagram. Follow him:

http://www.thedelhiwalla.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thedelhiwalla/
https://www.facebook.com/mayankaustensoofi

Write to mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com

Lonely Planet Discover India

“The Delhi Walla shows an offbeat view of Delhi.”

National Geographic Traveler

“The Delhi Walla is an excellent resource for ‘alternative’ Delhi.”

CNNGo

“The Delhi Walla spends his time in Delhi’s most obscure streets looking for endangered chaiwallahs making tea or other cultural touchstones.”

Author Khushwant Singh

“The Delhi Walla has the knack of bringing out the unusual from the usual, and presenting the city in a different light.”

The Rough Guide to Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra

“The Delhi Walla is an excellent Delhi website with news and views about the city.”

The Independent

“The Delhi Walla is the most compelling guide to India’s capital.”

DK Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Delhi

“The Delhi Walla is a great website for offbeat views of the city.”

The Wall Street Journal

“The Delhi Walla is one of the most insightful guides on life — and food — in India’s capital.”

Historian William Dalrymple

“The Delhi Walla is Delhi’s most idiosyncratic and eccentric website, and reflects a real love of this great but under-loved and underrated city.”

Mail Today

“Perhaps the most compelling and attractive Indian blog is The Delhi Walla blog run by Mayank Austen Soofi.”