City Obituary – Pianist Mahesh Agrawal, The Ashoka Life by The Delhi Walla - September 10, 2021September 10, 20210 The Steinway man. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He was the man who had been regaling audiences on Delhi’s sole Steinway on public view—at The Ashok—for more than 30 years. He died during the second surge of the Covid in the capital in early 2021. The Delhi Walla met him once. Here's the account of that evening. Meanwhile, that Steinway stays locked in the hotel's tea lounge. HIS THICK fingers press down the piano keys, and thousands of stars immediately fall from the sky to break into millions of sparkling diamonds. A great part of the magic comes from the grand piano itself, the only Steinway on public view in the city. But please consider the pianist, too. Mahesh Agrawal has been
City Landmark – The Ashok, Chanakyapuri Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - September 10, 20210 The 5-star hotel at 65. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The red sandstone edifice is regal. The sweep of the driveway is as majestic. Just walking on it makes you feel like a head of State on way to meet a fellow head of State. Such is the grandness of this landmark hotel. Everyone in Delhi calls it Ashoka, not Ashok, and it’s no fault of theirs, for the hotel was renamed The Ashok only in 2007. India’s first state-owned five-star hotel will turn 65 in October. It was built on a rocky hillock in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri, just in time to accommodate the delegates of the ninth session of Unesco, held in the Capital in 1956. Here are some
City Landmark – Ghantaghar Clock Tower, Hari Nagar Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - September 10, 2021September 10, 20210 The circle of time. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This place is like a sheet of paper that has been folded many times over. So that the original page gets balkanised into many little sheets, with each fold becoming an autonomous territory. The Hari Nagar Ghantaghar crossing is exactly as creasy. The west Delhi landmark looks simple. Just a traffic roundabout with a clock tower in the centre. But then the very many establishments that ring the circle start making their presence felt one by one. Each of them, big and small, appears to singularly contain the unique essence of the Ghantaghar. Together they make the Ghantaghar look vastly huger than it truly is. Indeed. reading aloud these place-names is intensely