City Landmark – Lodhi Road Crematorium, Central Delhi Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - August 19, 20220 Where we go to. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Shareer (body) is a khet (farm field), atma (soul) is the kisan (farmer), and paap (sin) and poornya (merit) are two beej (seeds). The line is inscribed on the backrest of a bench donated by a certain Prashant Nagpal. Frankly speaking, this is the kind of place one hopes to steer clear of as long as possible. Owing to its nearness to Delhi’s VVIP homes, Lodhi Road crematorium pops up in the news each time a very very important person passes to the great unknown. The cremation ground’s true name is Dayanand Muktidham, and is entered through Lala Lajpat Rai Road, which does intersect, some distance away, with the aforementioned Lodhi
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Flute Seller Qurban Ansari, Around Town Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - August 18, 20221 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] All day long he saunters along the streets selling flutes. Qurban Ansari, 19, lives in Gurugram’s Madipur Chowk in Sector 19 with parents, who are retired labourers, and wife, Noorsaba Khatoon, whom he married a year ago. One cloudy afternoon, while walking on the road, he agreed to become a part of the Proust Questionnaire series in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. Your favorite virtue. I earn through hard work, so I have sakoon (satisfaction). Your favorite qualities in a man. Honesty. Your favorite qualities in a woman. Her instinct to care for her family. What do you appreciate the most in your friends? Inssniyat (humanity). Helping those who are in distress, and
City Food – Rajbir’s Nankhatai, Turkman Gate Food by The Delhi Walla - August 18, 20220 A stall of sturggles. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Rajbir is a bearer of two legacies. One is of a street delicacy with origins going back to the Europeans. The other is more intimate. It is the legacy of his life’s struggles. This afternoon, passersby are coming to his nankhatati cart intermittently, here in Old Delhi’s Turkman Gate. One woman hesitantly enquires about the price. He says, “Dus ke paanch (10 for 5).” Rajbir has been selling nankhatai biscuits in the Walled City for 40 years. He left his MP village when he was a child. “There were problems at home.” His father, who had a stall in Delhi’s Kishanganj, had suddenly died. “I had to earn for the family.”
City Hangout – Public Park, Greater Kailash 2 Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - August 16, 2022August 16, 20220 A lesser known oasis. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some poet wrote that a true garden is simply made of lights. If so, then this park in Greater Kailash 2 has to be Delhi’s truest garden, at least for the moment. This afternoon, the sunshine is lashing down like heavy showers upon the tree leaves, turning the dark green of their surface to something soft and translucent. A few leaves have been completely annihilated by the light, their corporeality lost to the glare. Suddenly, a monsoon cloud blocks the sun. The light vanishes, awarding the visitor a chance to notice the park’s other aspects. Such as its central walkway that flows as straight as a canal in a Persian garden. Since the
City Hangout – The Mid-August Sun, Defence Colony Flyover Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - August 15, 20220 An evening to memorialise. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The people who commanded the stage on 15 August, 1947, seem so far away in time and history — almost like myths. While in contrast this red disk, our brilliantly shining sun, feels so much a part of our 2022, and looks so spanking new, as if freshly washed in a bath of golden water. But this sun is 4,500,000,000 years old, and our India has turned only 75 — some of us have parents older than that. Such are the thoughts one might think here, on simultaneously watching the sun set and commemorating a landmark date in our nation’s history, that subjugated an empire in which the sun was meant
City Food – Bhoore Yadav’s Aloo Paratha, Near Hauz Khas Village Food by The Delhi Walla - August 14, 2022August 14, 20221 Taste by the way. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The only missing element is a tie. Otherwise he is always dressed gentlemanly—in belted pants and long-sleeved shirt. The buttoned-up sleeves are never rolled up to the elbows, no matter how hot or humid the day might be. And his aloo paratha is super-swadisht. Bhoore Yadav’s stall lies on the tree-lined pathway between Hauz Khas Village and Aurobindo Market, under the refuge of a shaded neem. All the necessary embellishments of the stall, including the cooking range, are arranged entirely on a bicycle. A sample paratha adorns the top of a gigantic brass vessel, which contains homemade chhole. The yummy aloo filling and a heap of green chilli pickles lie
Mission Delhi – Lalu, Mandi House Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - August 12, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The houses are vacant. An earthen chulha (stove) is dusted with ashes—somebody must have cooked here not long ago. But the lane is silent. It is like a village whose desperate residents staged an emergency exodus, leaving behind their possessions. Relax, nobody has fled. The dwellers are labourers, migrants from Madhya Pradesh. It is late afternoon, and they are away at work. Improvised out of plastic, plywood and tin, these residences were staked out four months ago in one of the six small plazas that speckle the pedestrian-friendly circumference of Mandi House traffic roundabout. The circle is in the middle of a makeover by New Delhi Municipal Council. A
City Landmark – City End, Near Sector 55-56 Metro Station, Gurgaon Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - August 11, 20220 Last point. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Big cities are like a sentence with lots of commas but without a full stop. You just don’t know where they might end. Check that out by driving through Delhi. Like the COVID’s ever-transmuting virus, the metropolis first transmutes into a succession of suburbs. These suburbs transmute into Ghaziabad/Noida/ Faridabad/Gurugram. These cities transmute into their suburbs, which, in their turn, transmute into other cities, other suburbs. Where is that place to exclaim, “Yes, here is our megapolis’s last point!” Ding dong, here is that place. The Yellow Line of Delhi Metro goes all the way from Samaypur Badli in the north to Green Park and Mehrauli in the south, to HUDA City Center in Gurgaon.
City Food – Bhaijaan Chicken Shami Kebab, Chitli Qabar Bazar Food by The Delhi Walla - August 9, 2022August 9, 20220 Beloved brother's offering. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “Why did you fall in love? Why did you go away, away, away?” These words are pouring out like pangs of everlasting sadness from Mr Javed’s lips. The young man’s dulcet voice is masterfully summoning a Kumar Shanu song from the 1990s. Mr Javed works in a takeaway joint of super svadisht shami kebabs. The establishment’s name is as affable as Mr Javed’s rendition. Bhaijaan in Chitli Qabar Bazar was founded by a bhaijaan, or beloved brother, called Muhammad Shamim. He is not to be seen in the shop, which specialises exclusively in chicken kebab. The boiled keema, or paste, for the kebab (minced chicken+channa dal+spices) is personally prepared by bhaijaan every morning
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Booksellers Swati Roy & M Venkatesh, Greater Kailash II Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - August 7, 20220 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Their business is something rare. Swati Roy, a former marketing manager, and M Venkatesh, a former journalist, co-run a bookstore specialising in children’s books. They opened Eureka in 2003 in B Block, CR Park, where they would “pay a fine every other week for running a commercial enterprise in a residential area.” They did move to a local shopping complex but the fairy tale ended when the high rent forced them to shut the store in 2014. Years later, the CMYK bookstore in GK II offered them a part of its space to share. The two reopened their beloved enterprise in March 2020, just in time for the coronavirus to lock down our