City Landmark – Backpackers’ Hostel, Paharganj Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - June 30, 2021June 30, 20210 The pre-pandemic scrawls. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The white walls are covered with handwritten scrawls in Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Arabic, Portuguese, Thai, Italian, and English. There are drawings too — a woman’s face, a Turkish darvesh, a peaceful tiger, a mermaid with Medusa-like hair, an auto (in its customary green), a map of Canada, a man with tree roots as his torso. This is the small, dimly lit lobby of a backpackers’ hostel in Paharganj. The sights on the walls are the souvenirs of the many travellers who have passed through it over the years. Among the budget hotels of Paharganj, this hostel — its entrance is so unremarkable that nobody might notice it unless one is
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Ram Swaroop, Sadar Bazar Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - June 30, 2021July 1, 20210 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Rickshaw puller Ram Swaroop arrived in the Delhi region from his native Fatehpur in UP around 15 years ago, his family still lives there. In his early 40s, he sleeps on his rickshaw at night, he says, which he parks on the footpath. His hobbies include listening to Hindi film songs. This afternoon, waiting for customers in Sadar Bazar, he gamely became a part of the Proust Questionnaire series in which folks are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore citizens’ distinct experiences. The principal aspect of your personality Staying quiet. Your favorite qualities in a man Ability to earn well for his family. Your favorite qualities in a woman She should take good care of her husband’s parents,
Mission Delhi – Shivnath Verma, Daryaganj Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - June 28, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Young people get restless in villages as soon as they realise life is elsewhere. They leave their homes, move to big cities full of rumoured possibilities, and build a new life. This is the way of the world. Shivnath Verma, too, moved to Delhi three years ago from his village in Pratapgarh, UP. But his hair is grey, his forehead is creased with lines, his figure frail. This afternoon he’s selling channas from a small plastic tub, here in a central Delhi lane in Daryaganj. What might his age be? Mr Verma moves to the side of the lane crowded with pedestrians. He takes out a purple cloth pouch tucked
City Hangout – Post-Second Surge Lodhi Garden, Central Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - June 27, 20211 In the light of a tragedy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A masked man on a bench. Behind, a centuries-old stone tomb. All around, grass and trees. No other human to be seen. Wandering in Lodhi Garden, a day after the reopening of Delhi’s public parks, reacquaints one with its familiar solitudes in a new way. It’s like welcoming home one’s loved one after their long and traumatic stay in the hospital, watching them gradually acclimatise to the life in the house. Relief is tinged with sadness. Perhaps because the evening sky is particularly picturesque, with tiny puffs of clouds scattered about like cotton stuffing ripped out of a pillow, Lodhi Garden is permeated with a more intense beauty. Are we
City Hangout – Bench by the Tree, Shivaji Bus Terminus Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - June 24, 20210 Back to the bench. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sun’s glare is blinding, but here it feels like an unconfirmed rumour. The leafy tree is doubling up as an ample parasol. Make the bench on this cool spot your part-time getaway. It is in a bus terminus in Connaught Place. Only a few chai shacks are open this afternoon in Shivaji Stadium Bus Terminal. Only a sprinkle of commuters. You could as well be in some secluded corner of the city. Being on this bench is special because it connects you to the Delhi of a different era, when our city’s underground had not been hollowed out yet into a maze of tunnels—that is, when there was no Delhi Metro.
Mission Delhi – Ompal, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - June 23, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He’s one of our city’s most uncommon men. This afternoon, he is sitting on the pavement, giving the final touches to what seems to be a self-made chabuk, or whip. A dhaba owner describes him as a goat herder. This isn’t completely surprising because the neighbourhood, Hazrat Nizamuddin basti, is full of these animals. “He takes people’s goats to the (nearby) Panj Peeran graveyard, where they feed on wild grass and bushes.” There is no easy way to confirm this with the man himself. He can’t hear or speak, the locals say, and neither is he known to communicate by writing. But every Basti shopkeeper this reporter talked
City Obituary – Appetite German Bakery, Paharganj Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - June 22, 20210 Death of an icon. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The tables and chairs are gone. The cake counter is gone. The kitchen at the back is gone. One of Delhi’s quirkiest hang-outs has become history. Appetite German Bakery, in Paharganj, has closed permanently—the owner’s brother confirms. Not wishing to be named, he says the coronavirus pandemic is the reason behind the closure. The place was founded 30 years ago, he informs. It underwent two major renovations over its lifetime (the earlier wicker chairs were sorely missed). For many in the Capital, the backpackers’ district of Paharganj is a place to mingle around with eclectic post-hippie foreigners. Appetite was its archetypal hang-out, where you would try “baahar ki (from abroad)” dishes for
Mission Delhi – Kailash, Sector 6, Gurgaon Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - June 19, 2021June 21, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Our material possessions aren’t everything, but they are something. Labourer Kailash agrees to the assessment. He feels their importance, he says, because he has so little. “I don’t even have a wallet,” he says, standing awkwardly in a corner of the small, windowless, dark home of brick walls and tin roof he shares with two other labourers in Gurgaon’s Sector 6 in the Greater Delhi Region. He feels a bit at a loss, he apologizes, because he isn’t used to receiving guests at home. In his 30s, the father of three arrived in the Millennium City about three years ago from his hometown, Purnea in Bihar, to work
City Hangout – Daylight Magic, Hazrat Chirag Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - June 19, 20210 A light touch. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Daylight’s so common—it is everywhere. One ends up taking it for granted. And in Delhi’s dreadful summer, daylight can be downright hostile. But there’s one place in the city where this ubiquitous element can be experienced as art. Here, the light scatters into an array of designs and moods. Come anytime in the day to Hazrat Chirag Delhi, the Sufi shrine in the south Delhi village of that name. This is a sprawling courtyard, dotted with domed chambers, scores of graves and a handful of gigantic trees. All of these individually are as calm as self-contained refuges, but what unites them harmoniously is the way they engage with daylight. This afternoon, the light is
Mission Delhi – Zubair Alvi, Chitli Qabar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - June 18, 2021June 18, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] On the laptop, the Microsoft Excel file is open. The young man with a week-old stubble is urgently poring over sales invoices and balance sheets. This concerns a UK client, and he must complete the auditing of their financial year revenue before the next morning in London. This is just another day for Zubair Alvi, 25. A “Senior 2” in a Gurgaon consultancy firm in the Graeter Delhi Region, his office is in the Cyber City. But he is in Chitli Qabar, in Old Delhi. Outside his window the lane is teeming with hawkers and goats. His mother is sitting next to him, checking a recipe (fried