City Landmark – Old Well, Hauz Khas Village Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 9, 2021December 10, 20210 A souvenir with living memories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] They are known for their restaurants and boutiques, their lake view rooftops and their loud music. But the lanes of Delhi’s HKV, the fashionable Hauz Khas Village, have village-like experiences to offer too. One lane ends into a sprawling yard with a lesser-known landmark. Full of stones and dust, it looks like the remains of a historic site. It’s a well. The so-named Gung Wala Kuan looks as scenically dated as emperor Feroze Shah Tughlaq’s tomb a few lanes away, in another corner of the village. Parts of the well have collapsed. Solitary peepal leaves are growing out from between the stones. A forest of trees stands behind, making this
City Landmark – Sapru House, Barakhamba Road Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 9, 20210 Of post-independent history. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A dome that’s like a Buddhist stupa. Pillars resembling those at ancient Hindu temples. Designs on the gateway inspired by Islamic monuments. This red-and-white sandstone edifice is permeated with the essence of India’s histories. But the Nepalese ambassador’s palatial residence across the road is more easily visible from the road outside and attracts more attention. It is Sapru House, however, that is the precious souvenir of our city’s post-independent past. Tucked away on Barakhamba Road in central Delhi, close to the Mandi House circle, you might have passed by it a hundred times without knowing that it has been graced by the presence of international notables such as Ho Chi Minh and Dag
Mission Delhi – Immortal Rooster, Chitli Qabar Chowk Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 8, 20210 One of the one percent in 13 million. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Times change. But things remain. Just like Old Delhi’s nameless but immortal rooster. Until before the pandemic arrived in early 2020, this rooster’s world had an unremarkable routine. Everyday, Muhammed Aijaz “Chickenwale” would run his knife through some 50 chickens in his busy meat shop in Chitli Qabar Chowk, while this wooden rooster, beautifully polished, would grace a pride-of-place spot in a corner, like a drawing-room showpiece. The rooster was actually destined for Paris. Some years ago, a French student at Delhi University received it as a gift from her philosophy professor. It was meant for the student’s mother in Montparnasse, Paris, who collected wooden roosters from around the world.
City Walk – Golf Course Road, Gurgaon Walks by The Delhi Walla - December 8, 20210 Nuances of disparity. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] High-rises so tall that sometimes clouds waft around the upper floor windows. In malls, you hear a babble of foreign accents. Sleek coaches of the Rapid Metro show up frequently on the elevated tracks. Gurgaon’s Golf Course Road in the Greater Delhi Region feels like a hyperlocal Singapore. That only tells half the story. As you walk along the road, the unfolding sights lead to a deeper appreciation of the Millennium City’s nuances. In the evening, a part of the busy road is taken over by scores of female cyclists. Many of the women work as household helps in the area’s apartments and are now returning home, so says one of them on being
City Food – Radhe Radhe Karhi Chawal Wale, Anand Vihar Food by The Delhi Walla - December 8, 20210 Cabbie's meal. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He gave up his career as a cab driver. But his white cab remains a necessary element of his new career. Vikas Sharma started his pavement lunch stall two weeks ago. The cab is the stall. Its boot is the food counter. The menu is always the same - three gravy-based dishes of rajma, chhole and karhi, along with plain boiled rice. The signature dish is karhi, for that is the name of the stall - Radhe Radhe Sharmaji Karhi Chawal Wale. A cloth banner printed with this name is draped across the length of the cab, and it is in direct view of pedestrians here in Anand Vihar, a short walk from
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Gulesh Chauhan, On the Road Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - December 7, 20210 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Almost everyone in Ghaziabad’s Karkar village can tell you the directions to her house, she says. Gulesh Chauhan is admired in her neighbourhood as the woman who drives an Uber cab in the National Capital Region. She is already on the road this early Sunday morning — after cooking a meal of ‘aloo matar and namkeen chawal’ for her mother-in-law and son. While dropping her rider at his destination, Ms Chauhan, 42, gamely agrees to become a part of the Proust Questionnaire series in which folks are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore citizens’ distinct experiences. Your favourite qualities in a man? His behaviour with women whom he meets outside his home should be
City Hangout – Winter Evening’s Lodhi Garden, Central Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - December 4, 2021December 4, 20211 Beauty in the smog. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Catch a glimpse of red lava smouldering atop a distant volcano. Well, it’s just a reflection of the evening sky on a pond. This breathtaking view, as seen from a Mughal-era stone bridge, is on exhibit throughout the year at Lodhi Garden. So are the park’s centuries-old monuments, flower hedges, trees, birds, dogs and VIPs. But there is one incredibly beautiful aspect of Lodhi Garden experienced only at a certain time of the day - and only in winters - when the air becomes partly hazy with smog or mist. The scenes appear to have been processed with Instagram filters. Visit after sundown, when the place starts getting shrouded in darkness, and
City Hangout – Jama Masjid Courtyard, Gurgaon Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - December 4, 2021December 4, 20210 The soothing winter space. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] When one hears the words “Jama Masjid”, one instinctively thinks of Old Delhi’s Mughal-era mosque. That red sandstone monolith by Emperor Shahjahan is among the world’s greatest monuments. The twilight illuminates some parts of it most poignantly. The area remains so crowded, and the surrounding marketplace is so packed during the evening, that it is difficult to concentrate on the setting sun and the beauty that it casts on the mosque. Now consider the Jama Masjid in Gurgaon in the Greater Delhi Region - the Friday Mosque in Sadar Bazar. It has nothing of the history and grandeur of its Purani Dilli cousin. But the sunset ambience here is no less exceptional.
City Hangout – Lonely Planet Store, Jackson Books, Paharganj Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - December 3, 2021December 3, 20210 Travellers' stop. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] "As well as Indian staples, you’ll find everything, from banana pancakes to pizzas, Mexican wraps and Israeli falafel… all of which can taste remarkably similar to the Indian staples. Come here for low prices and the travellers’ hubbub rather than gourmet dining” - this is the Lonely Planet India (2013 edition) introduction to Paharganj. Delhi’s hotel district used to teem with foreign travellers, with almost each of them armed with a copy of Lonely Planet (LP). Indeed, the corner bookshelf in any self-respecting Paharganj café stocked at least a couple of these much thumbed LPs. And then the coronavirus arrived early last year. As the new variant Omicron spreads worldwide, Paharganj’s backpackers are no
City Monument – Masjid Mubarak Begum, Chawri Bazar Monuments by The Delhi Walla - December 1, 20210 Like a wounded fairy tale. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is among Delhi’s most melancholic souvenirs. One of the domes no longer exists. The missing portion is wrapped in a blue tarpaulin, like a makeshift bandage on an amputation wound. One morning in July last year, thunder, lightning and rain fell fatally on Masjid Mubarak Begum in the Walled City’s Chawri Bazar, causing a dome to splinter into uneven halves. The old building now appears reconciled to the impairment. This afternoon, a lone man is reclined in the courtyard. The open space is more like a deck, for the mosque rests on a plinth high enough to stay disconnected from the chaos of the bazaar. Directly underneath lies machine parts