Mission Delhi – Furqan Ali, Ghalib Academy Library Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He contains multitudes within himself. Furqan Ali writes verses in his journal, is a trained calligrapher in Urdu, and an archivist as well, and also an “e-book scanner,” which is his day-job. But in his heart, he’s a theatre actor. At 29, Mr Ali has already portrayed a range of characters on the stage. “I was a priest in an adaptation of Phanishwar Nath Renu ’s novel Maila Anchal, which was performed five times, including in Bareilly.” This afternoon, working as a (real-life) book scanner in central Delhi's Ghalib Academy library, Mr Ali is leisurely browsing through shelves—it’s his lunch break. “Just last month I played a
City Food – Dilli 6 Chaat Bhandar, Outside Siri Fort Auditorium Food by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 20210 The mother of all snack stalls. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Without doubt, this has to be the naani of all the roadside snack stalls. The unusually huge counter is filled with multitudinous dishes—aloo chaat, dahi bhalle, papri chaat, pao bhaji, aloo tikki, burger, Ram laddu, and dahi puckha. (Any item left unmentioned is deeply regretted.) This is Dilli 6 Chaat Bhandar. It’s not in Dilli 6, aka Old Delhi, but in south Delhi, just outside the Siri Fort Auditorium, on August Kranti Marg. “Originally we were in (Old Delhi’s) Chandni Chowk,” explains Brijesh, while shallow-frying the tikkis on the tava. His elder brother, Ram Avtar, with whom he runs the establishment, is briefly away on some errand. The stall was
City Hangout – Masjid Udayan, Gurgaon Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 20210 A cold-weather friend. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A man is lying on a bench, wide awake. Some steps away, a chhole-bhature eatery staffer is hurriedly finishing his homemade dal-roti. While a cotton candy hawker, armed with plastic-wrapped pink candies, is playing ludo on the mobile. Then there’s a goat, and a lazy dog too. Overlooking it all is the area’s Jama Masjid. After plunging into semi-hibernation during the summer and monsoon months, Gurgaon’s Masjid Udayan has awakened to the October nip. It’s not yet cold, and the winter’s dreaded haze is weeks away. Be warned, though: the park is just a muddy brown ground with some grass and some cactuses. If you are patient, only then does it reveal its
City Hangout – Chekhov’s Promenade, South Extension-2 General by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 20210 A lane to breathe. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Very often restless people have the habit of pacing to and fro in their living room or on their terrace, if they have any. Such an exercise is said to bring clarity to the thought process. That same pacing can also be executed on the dream-like walkway here. If the redesigned Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi can be celebrated these days for its new pedestrian-friendly ambience, what’s preventing people from singing about this airy promenade, just outside the South Extension Metro station in South Extension-2? This late afternoon, the paved stretch is soaked in a soothingly warm sun. A young woman is repeatedly trying to click a perfect selfie with a stray cat
Mission Delhi – Aditya Raj, CR Park Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 20211 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Such a vivid series of cumulous clouds. There’s also a man with a moth perched on his mouth. To a visitor at Aditya Raj’s studio in south Delhi’s CR Park, these acrylics on canvas might bear little resemblance to the real world. The 3 pm sky outside is dull blue and without clouds. The primary view from this fourth floor terrace is in fact of the neighbour’s pani ki tankis. But right now, Mr Raj, 30, is sketching something straightforwardly relatable—the Majnu Ka Tila gateway in the north of the city. It is a part of his October project in which he is drawing one Delhi landmark per
Mission Delhi – Rajesh, Mathura Road Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 12, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Isn’t Rajesh a man’s name? Rajesh shrugs her shoulders. “My parents named me Rajesh, I don’t know why,” she says sombrely, admitting in a surprised tone that she never thought of asking them the reason. This afternoon Rajesh is assigned by her contractor for a repairing job in central Delhi's Mathura Road. A labourer, she is helping renovate a damaged road divider. The lady always works with her husband in a two-member team. The stubbornly silent Mani Ram is carefully laying out the cement along the surface of the cracked divider, while Rajesh is bringing the cement to him from a pile kept on one side of
City Landmark – Muhammad Ateek Chawbiwale, Tiraha Behram Khan Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 10, 20210 The key man. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s like discovering all the passwords of your online existence copy-pasted into a stranger’s laptop. Such is the alarm one feels on coming face-to-face with hundreds of keys hanging in several bunches, from a series of nails rammed into a low wooden block. The Old Delhi pavement stall of the so-named Chabi Wale specialises in making keys, or chabi, for various kinds of big and small locks. The Chabi Wale’s mobile phone number is scrawled all over the stall’s wooden booth, including on the wall behind him. On receiving a call, the Chabi Wale walks over to the customer’s gali or kucha, surveys the lock, and makes a replica of the lost key
City Food – Shekhar Chai, Anand Vihar Food by The Delhi Walla - October 8, 20211 The 24/7 tea stall. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here’s a persuasive reason to patronise a pavement chai place. The owner is so committed to his stall that he has its name tattooed on his arm. Shekhar Chai is engraved on Shekhar’s right arm, in Hindi. The chai is rich with the invigorating flavour of freshly crushed ginger. It is served in old-fashioned earthen kulhad that lends the chai a sensory taste of the wet earth. There’s yet another compelling reason to make this pavement stall your new friend. Shekhar Chai is located in a part of the Capital where it happens to be older than many of the surrounding landmarks. It stands right under the elevated track of the Blue
Mission Delhi – Unnamed Monkey, Hazrat Chirag Dehlavi’s Sufi Shrine Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 7, 2021October 7, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He has no known friends or relatives. Utterly alone, he seems to prefer his own company. This unnamed monkey lives in the dargah of Hazrat Chirag Dehlavi. He first surfaced in the south Delhi Sufi shrine during the lockdown early this year, when the city was reeling under the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. “No idea where he came from,” confesses Syed Moeez Ahmed Nasiri, a khadim, one of the shrine’s hereditary caretakers, who lives in the dargah with his family. The residences of the caretakers are situated at one end of the sprawling courtyard that is crisscrossed with centuries-old graves of known and unknown mystics. The
Mission Delhi – Rupkesh Kumar, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 6, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was a brief sleep, and a deep sleep. And a rare occurrence, for Rupkesh Kumar, 53, never sleeps during the day. But this late afternoon he had a splitting headache. After quickly finishing dal-roti in an eatery, he parked his auto on the roadside, swallowed down a pain-killer, and sprawled his exhausted body along the passenger’s seat. “I instantly fell asleep.” He woke up 15 minutes later and discovered “my wallet was no longer in my shirt pocket.” The shirt pocket too had gone. “The thief slashed it with a blade, I think.” Mr Kumar unbuttons the shirt and shows the remnants of the pocket. The “haadsa