City Moment – Winter Sunset, Jama Masjid, Gurgaon Moments by The Delhi Walla - November 26, 20200 The perfect Delhi moment. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is winter and the sun is at long last our friend. But some things don’t change: the most poignant time of the season is still the twilight hour, when our sky’s brightest star starts staging a retreat. The so-called Millennium City of Gurgaon in the Greater Delhi Region is rich in sunset points. The most beautiful sites from where to view the perishing sun are undoubtedly enjoyed by the posh Golf Course Road dwellers, living in the higher floors of the multi-storey residential towers. Another set of good places is on the flyovers of National Highway 8 — but this is a pleasure accessible only to those driving towards Delhi. The
Debris of Life & Mind – Copywriter’s Lidiya Prasad’s Dream, Cochin City Dreams by The Delhi Walla - November 26, 2020November 26, 20200 Sharing a dream. [Text by Lidiya Prasad, photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is a world way above, in a perpetually purple sky. It looks surprisingly like a museum, or our parliament, only upside down. As it hangs in a parallel world, people move about down below, reading books, chasing rickshaws, bargaining at bazaars, praying at mandirs, falling in and out of love. I long to travel to the world above and set out on a mission to build a sledge that can only be operated by me. The dream skips to the part where a wooden sledge lies in my garden, ready to take me with it. I take a book along and begin my journey--the dream abruptly ends there and
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Manami Chakravorty, Calcutta Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - November 26, 20200 The 256th death. [By Manami Chakravorty] Manami Chakravorty loved window seats and enjoyed travelling in metro and local trains, silently observing different people with different lives, coexisting together. She weaved stories around strangers. She kept wondering about everything and hence was usually lost. For most of her life, Ms Chakravorty confused happiness with peace. She thought every non-living thing was an individual. For her, the yellow taxis were men in their mid-thirties, tired of their average lives; and cream biscuits were some happy kids, unaware of the cruelty of this world. She strongly believed in the power of kindness and in the healing power of books and ghazals. She had this conclusion--life is like a strict teacher, who punishes you brutally to make you
City Hangout – Modern Tea Stall, Haveli Azam Khan Street Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 26, 20200 The place after the pandemic. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi’s tea stalls make very milky and sweet chai. The venerable Modern Tea Stall with its not-so-modern wooden chairs and chipped china is different. Its tea is dark and karak (strong). Founded in 1967, this atmospheric destination on Haveli Azam Khan street was lying shuttered since the coronavirus-triggered lockdown in March. It reopened a month ago. Before the pandemic changed the texture of everyday routines, some of the area’s distinguished verse writers would gather in the tea house every evening (see the first photo below) to chat about the latest trends in contemporary Urdu poetry—as well as gossip about the private life of the poets. Indeed, the daily soirées of