City Season – Gulmohar Sightings, Gulmohar Park & Elsewhere Nature by The Delhi Walla - April 29, 2022April 29, 20221 Red rising. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This tree has such a bad timing. Each year, as the gulmohar begins to bloom, a more forceful distraction arrives: The bystander gets dazzled by the yellow blossoming of the Amaltas. But gulmohar arrives earlier. These days, throughout the metropolis, car windshields are crisscrossed with reflections of these red blossoms. Only now one realises the existence of so many gulmohars in our midst. The early flowers spring up in late April. “The first thing I see from my gate, when I pick up the newspapers, is the gulmohar in our society that was planted by my friend Prachi in 2008 when we both shifted here,” says author Farah Naaz, who lives in Gurgaon’s Ardee
City Landmark – Tolstoy’s Statue, Janpath Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - April 27, 20220 On reading War and Peace. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] And what does he make of his country’s war against Ukraine? But Leo Tolstoy is remaining as silent as a statue. With arms crossed on his chest, the great writer’s gaze is directed towards the Janpath outlet of McDonald’s. This is a rare statue in Delhi dedicated to a novelist. As a repercussion of Russia’s war against its smaller neighbour, Russian artists, musicians and sportspersons are increasingly being barred from global stage. In Delhi, as in elsewhere, Tolstoy lies too far removed from the present. His art has transcended his ethnicity, so much so that while he is still every inch a writer of Russia, he simultaneously belongs to the
Mission Delhi – Ram Bran, Hazrat Nizamuddin West Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - April 27, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is almost midnight. The neighbourhood groceries have closed for the day. The area’s sole eatery too has downed its shutters. The three attendants at the adjacent gas station are sitting idle. A homeless man is sleeping outside a shuttered tailoring shop, his body covered with a white chaadar. The lane is without life, here in this central Delhi neighbourhood of Hazrat Nizamuddin West. Moments later, a breach tears through this emptiness. Ice-cream seller Ram Bran is pushing along his ice-cream trolley. “I’m going home,” he says in a muffled voice. Turning backwards, he gestures with his arm towards a distant turning. “I sit there everyday selling
City Obituary – Raju Pandey, Amrit Book Company Life by The Delhi Walla - April 26, 20221 Life of a bookseller. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He was made of air, and hovered about like a djinn. At least, those were the vibes he exuded. For he materialised by your side just as you felt that you could make use of somebody’s help. Raju Pandey was one of Delhi’s most gentle-mannered bookstore staffers. He recently died, aged 46. The cause was an asthma attack during the early morning hours. For more than 25 years, he had been a shop assistant in Amrit Book Company, the Connaught Place landmark that used to be a regular book-buying haunt for Dr BR Ambedkar. The book man’s presence was very sturdy and yet very light, as if he were wandering
City Landmark – Perfume Cart, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - April 24, 20220 The cart of scents. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Our Delhi streets can tick you off. But at least one of the city’s street corners is permeated with perfumes. Roadside carts tend to be loaded with fruits, vegetables, discount clothes and sandals, but this cart in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti’s main lane, facing Bhai Jameel’s hair cutting saloon, is stacked with jars and glass flasks containing various kinds of aromatic ittar, each with a unique scent. “The thela is very old, but this business is new,” says hawker Abdullah, who used to sell combs and nail clippers on the cart until five months ago. These scented offerings belong to an Ittar shop nearby, he explains—in fact the nearby Karim Hotel wali Lane
Mission Delhi – Anand, Sultanpuri & Elsewhere Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - April 24, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Isn’t he a Hemingway lookalike? But he only looks like the great American writer from a distance, perhaps because of his beard, or because of his cap, that greatly resembles the iconic fishing cap that Hemingway would wear. The man in fact calls himself Fakkar Baba. “I picked this name myself… because I’m a fakkar.” He explains the meaning of this word: “One who has nothing… I have nothing.” The man is sitting by a shuttered store in a central Delhi locality. He raises his right arm, pulls back his shirt sleeve, and shows a tattoo—AS Rathi. “My real name… A stands for Anand.” In his late 60s, the
City Monument – Memorial Benches, Sunder Nursery Monuments by The Delhi Walla - April 22, 20220 Ode to loves. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] KD Singh was an iconic Delhi bookseller who passed away in 2014. The inscription reads: “Husband, Father, Grandfather & Bookman Extraordinaire.” Beneath runs a verse by poet Pablo Neruda: “When I close a book/ I open a life.” This is one of the many benches in Delhi’s Sunder Nursery, set up as part of the park’s ‘Dedicate a Bench’ programme for citizens to raise a public memorial for their loved ones. Almost every such bench is inscribed with intensely personal odes, some illuminating a person’s world in just a few words. A few plaques, like that of KD Singh’s, include lines by poets. One stretch in the park has benches remembering those who
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – School Student Amaan Saifi, Central Delhi Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - April 20, 2022April 20, 20221 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] The household is all astir at this early morning hour, here in central Delhi. 9th standard student Amaan Saifi has his English exam today. As he prepares to leave for the school on his bicycle, his father, Barkatullah, mother, Rukhsana, and baby sister, Anaya, step out of the house to wish him good luck. Having some minutes to spare, the 14-year-old agrees to be a part of the Proust Questionnaire series in which folks are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore citizens’ distinct experiences. Your favorite occupation. Drawing, sketching and painting. Your heroes/heroines in real life. My father, Barkatullah. He has survived many situations in life. He has worked as a shop assistant, as a waiter,
City Food – Khajla, Ameer Sweet House & Elsewhere Food by The Delhi Walla - April 20, 2022April 24, 20220 Season's delicacy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It looks like a giant golgappa, or an extra-large raj kachori. Some might confuse it with the enormous bhathura served in a landmark Connaught Place restaurant. But it is neither of these. This thing is only seen in select parts of Delhi, and only in a select portion of the year. It is called khajla, and is available only during the sacred month of Ramzan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Soaked in milk, the thick, flaky and sugary khajla is a deep-fried bread of maida flour. It is usually kept for sehri, the pre-dawn meal after which the fasting starts. It is said that khajla’s robustness helps a fasting person to
City Hangout – Brown Break Bakery, Paharganj Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - April 19, 20220 A pandemic-era life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once upon a time, Paharganj’s heart used to pulsate in two cafés. True — the entire Main Bazar in this hotel district of backpackers teemed with foreign backpackers. But it was in this pair of cafés that a great many of them would let go of their backpacks to hibernate into ease. There, these long-haired tattooed folks would spend hours chitchatting with fellow backpackers, exchange tips on best bike routes to Dharamshala and Pushkar, and share notes on bakhsheesh, Benares, Delhi belly, and Shatabdi Expresses. The less extrovert might play a guitar, or read a novel for hours. For Delhi locals, to hang out in these cafés, and be hemmed in by