Mission Delhi – Poonam Yadav, Sector 11 Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s late night and Poonam Yadav is sitting by the desk, with her laptop and scores of bulky books on Corporate Tax, Strategic Management and other subjects of the kind. “I have my first of the final year exams in the morning,” she says, looking half-amused as she chats on WhatsApp video. Is she smiling at the ironic timing of this rare power cut, that has forced her to light a candle? She playfully shrugs. A masters student in commerce, Ms Yadav is the only one in the family to be awake at this hour, in the third-floor house in Gurgaon’s Sector 11. In her mid-20s, she will be the only person in her
Mission Delhi – Sooraj Pal, South Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] No crowd on the street. No hope of getting a customer. Golgappa vendor Sooraj Pal’s face is hidden behind a blue mask. “I will wait,” he says. This evening, he was walking by a south Delhi lane when he decided to stop by this spot. Mr Pal’s street stall moves with him—it consists of a tripod stand called tirona (it is sold in Old Delhi’s Khari Baoli for 150 rupees), a large glass-shielded basket at the top of the tirona filled with golgappas and papris, a brass platter to support the large basket, a small plastic basket tucked at the bottom of the tirona for customers to dispose off their used bowls, and vessels containing tamarind
Home Sweet Home – New Life with Dishwasher, Ghaziabad Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 20200 A household's new friend. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is taking so much space in the small kitchen. But Babua Singh won’t crib about that. “You stack the bartan (dishes) in it, go to office, and when you come back in the evening everything is spotlessly clean and dry,” she says. A textile designer, Ms Singh is showing her newly acquired dish-washing machine in the Ghaziabad flat that she shares with her husband and college-going daughter. Like many middle-class households, Ms Singh used to depend on the services of a part-time house maid for washing the dishes. The coronavirus pandemic changed that as visits from the outside now involve fears of getting the virus. Ms Singh says she nevertheless
City Hangout – Stranded Boat, Hauz Khas Lake Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - September 26, 2020September 26, 20200 A melancholy setting. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One way to experience a beautiful poem is to find it in some book. Another way is to encounter it in a tangible material form in this three dimensional world. Then, without the medium of words, this is just you and the poem. One place to be enriched by such an experience lies right here in Delhi. The poem is a half-sunken peddle boat in Hauz Khas lake, tucked between Safdarjung Enclave and Hauz Khas Village. The boat has been lying in this position for years. This evening the water is looking dark green, perhaps reflecting the densely leaved trees surrounding the lake. The white boat is lying tilted, the front portion tipped upwards,
City Life – Line of Control, Matia Mahal Life by The Delhi Walla - September 25, 2020September 25, 20200 Dividing line. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi gets something new. It wasn’t here until yesterday. And now, a glossy white line is running along the Matia Mahal Bazar, slicing its main street in equal halves. “It was already painted when I arrived to set up my stall this morning (read Monday) at 7,” informs tea stall owner Muhammed Hamid—his rickety table is tucked by the street-side, a spitting distance from the dividing line. The man has no clue on who ordered the partition. Bawarchi Kallan offers a guess. Sitting a few steps away, across the street, he gazes intently at the line, saying, “Corporation people must have done it.” He is referring to the area’s municipal corporation. While morning
Mission Delhi – Dharmendera Diwakar, Sector 49 Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 23, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is the ironing man, and generally addressed by his profession rather than by his name. “Many people call me press wale bhayya,” says Dharmendera Diwakar. His profession is not taking good care of him these days. “I would daily iron about 300 pieces of clothing before the (coronavirus-triggered) lockdown, but now... yesterday for instance, I ironed 35.” In his early 30s, Mr Diwakar is chatting on WhatsApp video from his workplace—which consist of two tables and two irons, on the ground floor of a housing society tower in Gurgaon’s Sector 49 in the Greater Delhi Region. The society has a multitude of multi-storey towers, and Mr Diwakar’s customers are spread among two of such
Home Sweet Home – Ehmad Ridwan’s Pad, East of Kailash Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - September 23, 2020September 23, 20200 In a musician's world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s late night. He picks up his guitar, strums the strings and starts to croon Feeling Good. The Nina Simone classic instantly catches Rumi’s attention. He leaps up to the chair, jumps on the writing table, and listens intently to the rendition. Rumi is used to these guitar songs. Because Rumi’s roomie is a musician. Rumi is a cat. His mate, Ehmad Ridwan, is a human. This is their pad in south Delhi’s East of Kailash. They are the only guys in the flat. Both the other flatmates are women, who have their own rooms. “While I often play the guitar in the drawing room, our common room, I prefer to listen to music alone in
City Food – Late Sadia Dehlvi’s Cook, Sabir Bhai, is Ready for a New Home Food by The Delhi Walla - September 23, 2020September 23, 20200 A legendary cook's home cook. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Muhammed Sabir, aka Sabir Bhai, has worked as a cook for more than 25 years in the Delhi house of author and cookbook writer Sadia Dehlvi, who died in August this year. Ms Dehlvi was legendary for her home-made delicacies that celebrated the best of traditional non-vegetarian Delhi cuisine. It was Sabir Bhai, working under her supervision, who would rustle out all that delicious food for her much-coveted dining spread. He would address Ms Dehlvi affectionately as Apa (sister). Now, Sabir Bhai, 35, is back in his village in Bahraich, UP, and is looking forward to start new innings with a new employer. If you are a devotee of Delhi cuisine, you
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Jonaki Ray’s Ode to Ordinary, Kailash Colony Market City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - September 22, 2020September 22, 20200 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She is in purple palazzos and pink kurti. Her brown sling bag has her wallet, a mobile, a “chhotu” cash purse, keys to her south Delhi flat, and a hand sanitiser bottle. And she is wearing a mask, of course. Jonaki Ray works in an IT company, but she no longer has to commute all the way to Noida to mark her office attendance—thank you, Corona! Also a poet, she especially wrote a pandemic-era city-life poem for this blog. The Art of Not Losing Breath after Elizabeth Bishop At the corner of the market was Maxim’s with its air blending butter into rising cakes. Outside, on the crescent-shaped street, cars honking at walkers evading rickshaws, passengers hopscotching with potholes,
Mission Delhi – Kaunen, Sadar Bazar, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 20, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He had never encountered the word “entrepreneur” until February last year. “I first heard it in a computer class,” says Kaunen. “I then joined a two week free class on how to start and run your business, and to become just that thing — an entrepreneur.” Kaunen, 27, is chatting on WhatsApp from his home in Gurgaon’s Sadar Bazar. A law student, these days he is attending his college classes online through his mobile phone due to the pandemic. He lives with his father, who actually is an entrepreneur too—he runs a modest tailoring establishment on the pavement. But Kaunen’s aspirations of being an entrepreneur have a more ambitious scope. “I love nature and I