City Food – Deepak Kumar’s Rasgulla-Bread, Nehru Place Food by The Delhi Walla - November 19, 20210 Double treat. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is standing motionless, like a statue - his arm resting on his cycle’s handlebar, his face exuding calmness. Every now and then, he glances about, as if to signal to the moving crowd that he, too, is a fellow human. A man holding a laptop bag approaches him curiously. Deepak Kumar is a snack vendor in the commercial plaza of Nehru Place. The area teems with stalls, cafes and restaurants that together offer a wide variety of dishes. But no place has what he sells -- white rasgullas with white bread. The combination is unusual but not uncommon in Delhi’s street cuisine. Veteran vendor Lalta Prasad, for instance, has been selling rasgulla and “double
City Hangout – Pandemic-Era Madan Café, Paharganj Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 19, 2021November 19, 20210 A place for backpackers. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The cafés are once again crowded with backpackers. The paves are full of the blab of Israelis. The touts too have surfaced. Paharganj is back in business. If only. But this is what businesses in Delhi’s hotel district are dreaming for. Especially from this week as India reopens its doors to foreign travellers for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, by resuming the tourist visas. Paharganj’s Madan Café is optimistic. “We closed on the first day of the first lockdown and remained shut all these months because our primary customers were foreign tourists,” says Aditya Madan, the founder’s 30-year-old son. “We reopened on the auspicious day of Diwali.” In the BC (before