Debris of Life & Mind – “Recently Unemployed” Anonymous Man’s Dream, Pune City Dreams by The Delhi Walla - November 6, 20200 Sharing a dream. [Text by Anonymous, photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] During lockdown, I became acquainted with a boy on Instagram. We quickly began talking over phone. Our conservations seemed endless. He had a habit of staying awake at night, and I too started waking up in the middle of the night, only to drop him a message. One night, I dreamt of myself being in his apartment. We had landed up there after a party. His parents were in the house, visiting him from their hometown. His mother looked at me, complaining that she was sad he hadn’t come back home during the lockdown. As she spoke, I remembered him telling me in our first conversation that he didn’t want to
Mission Delhi – Dharmendra Partap Singh, City Roads Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 6, 20200 [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is all cloistered within plastic, as if in an echo chamber of his own. This sight perfectly encapsulates the surreality of the age of coronavirus. Cab driver Dharmendra Partap Singh is sitting on his driving seat, sealed from the rest of the car by a cabin-like wrap of plastic; the side-window of course is free. “This (plastic) is to protect the customer in case the driver has the infection,” he says, referring to the ongoing pandemic. He doesn’t say it, but the sealing might protect him too, if it is the passenger who is shedding the virus. In his 20s, the masked Mr Singh is driving a client around the city. He himself lives in
City Hangout – Joseph Stein’s Magical Terrace, Triveni Kala Sangam Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 6, 20200 The architecture of shadows. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Look carefully. The building is changing with the progress of the day. The roof expands as the sun moves. You feel its gradual shifting. The outer edges seem to free themselves from the concrete, and to stretch out. This has to be one of the most wondrous architectures in Delhi. Although the building houses a popular institution, who is aware of this particular magical feature? Of course, every artistic Delhiite has been to Triveni Kala Sangam at least once in her lifetime — if not to see exhibitions or enrol in classical music classes, then to dine at the atmospheric Triveni Tea Terrace. It is one of the capital’s earliest Stein buildings, designed