Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Siddharth Sethi’s Poem in Lockdown, Kailash Colony
Poetry in the city. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] While Delhi passes through one of its most tragic times in living history, it has citizens distilling their experiences into art. Isolated within home in Kailash Colony, actor Siddharth Sethi, 20, is…
Mission Delhi – Shailesh Singh, Sainikhera
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] His quarantine lasted 14 days. “It was like chaudah saal ka vanvaas,” says Shailesh Singh, comparing his ordeal to Lord Ram’s 14 years of exile….
City Walk – Florence Nightingale Lane, Green Park
Street of the nurse. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi has all sorts of lanes, all over the place. And then there’s Florence Nightingale Lane in Green Park—reminding us of the need for nurses in these grim days…
City Monument – Sultanate Souvenirs, Around Town
Before the Mughals. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is baking in the hot sun — Ghiyas-ud-din Balban’s tomb in Mehrauli Archaeological Park. The roof has collapsed, so have parts of the stone wall. Like many Delhi monuments,…
City Life – Voices from Covid, Around Town
An anthology of our feelings. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is perhaps the first time that the entire Delhi, with all its diverse complexities, has come around to a singular theme—of grief and fear about the ongoing…
City Season – Gulmohar Blossoming, Around Town
Red rising. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There’s fire raging these days across the city. The gulmohar trees are in scarlet bloom. Their flowering tend to be unpredictable. Sometimes they’re just a few vines of blossom in the…
City Faith – Lockdown Ramzan, Jama Masjid, Gurgaon
A world in pandemic. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The forever-optimistic Nashir Ahmed Khan in gloom? Impossible, you would think. But the second surge in the coronavirus pandemic has changed everything. “I’m badhal (in bad shape),” he says,…
City Life – Covid’s Street Life, Old Delhi
Life in the pandemic. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This narrow lane in the Walled City doesn’t go past any historic monument. No beautiful doorway opens into it. And yet, the lane shows so much. Especially these days,…
Mission Delhi – Chumki Sen, Sector 50, Gurgaon
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Why oh why did she get a house overlooking the main road, she feels, ten years after moving into it. At least she would have…
City History – Souvenir No. 1, In Search of Central Vista Lost
The place that was. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi’s Rajpath and the India Gate Grounds are being renovated as part of the Central Vista project. The beloved place as we knew it will cease to exist, but…
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