City Monument – Ghamandi Sarai, Gurgaon Monuments by The Delhi Walla - May 19, 20220 Gateway lives. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The gateway is bathed in the evening light with a beauty so tender you fear it might vaporise with the next heatwave. The time is altering the place in other ways however, here in Gurgaon’s Sadar Bazar in the Graeter Delhi Region. The elderly man who had been sitting under the gateway for many decades is no more. “He died before the coronavirus,” says Pinky. A friendly middle-aged woman, Pinky is sorting old clothes on the exact spot where the departed man would sort the same kind of old clothes. He traded in secondhand garments, and so does she. “Budhram was my father-in-law’s brother,” she informs. Budhram was as much of an icon in
City Walk – Old Houses of Jangpura, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - May 19, 2022May 19, 20220 Almost gone. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The door is stained with tiny shreds of old peeling paint. The latch is entwined into a small lock so rusty that it has gone red. Green plants are growing uncut right on the front. Studded with unshining brasses, this is a traditional wood door you might chance upon in Old Delhi, or in any other historic neighbourhood such as Mehrauli. But this is the more modern Jangpura, where the closest thing to a monument is perhaps the Eros Cinema (since 1956). The door adorns a ramshackle wall, and is flanked by objects of utmost artlessness. On the left is a window blocked with plywoods. On the right is a metallic door. The lane
City Hangout – Dargah Chai, Hazrat Nizamuddin’s Sufi Shrine Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - May 19, 20220 Sufi tea. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is no accident that Emperor Humayun, Emperor Muhammed Shah Rangila, Princess Jahanara, poet Amir Khusro, and poet Mirza Ghalib are buried near to each other. They all are in close vicinity to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s grave. It is considered a privilege to get a resting place close to holy mystics, and Nizamuddin happens to be among the most beloved saints in Sufism. The area around his 14th century dargah is full of graves. Some of the aforementioned figures such as Rangila and Jahanara lie within the premises. And this same reason makes Barkatullah’s establishment one of Delhi’s most special tea stalls. It stands within the gates of the dargah. Sitting at the