Mission Delhi – Vaseem Ansari, Ghaziabad Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 30, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] These hands. His hands. They have shouldered a legacy. But they have also put an end to that legacy. Vaseem Ansari is a weaver of carpets. For many years he has woven hundreds of them, and then he hasn’t weaved any for even more years. From a carpet maker, he has metamorphosed into a carpet seller. This afternoon, he has laid out his stock by a Ghaziabad pavement: the carpets are slung across a roadside fence as if they were clothes drying on a wash line. Some more are stacked on his cart, too. One carpet with an ornate design is laid out in its entirety on
City Landmark – Ukrainian Embassy, Vasant Vihar Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - September 30, 2022September 30, 20220 The other diplomatic enclave. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “September 23, 2022: 212nd day of full-scaled Russian aggression.” So says the flier pinned on the board. While the gate has a framed map of Ukraine. An adjacent poster with a picture of orchid flowers affirms that “Taiwan stands for Ukraine.” And that’s the Ukrainian flag hoisted on a pole. In the absence of breeze, the flag is hanging down. This is the closest you can get to war-torn Ukraine while in Delhi, Gurugram, Ghaziabad or Noida. The embassy lies towards the end of a silent sleepy lane in C block, here in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar. The building looks like the multi-storey kothi of any wealthy Vasant Vihar family. A bird is perched
Mission Delhi – Isak Ali, Basant Lok Market Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - September 29, 20220 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] See the top photo, clicked a decade ago. See the photo below. Snapped this week, same place. Then there was a bookstore, Fact & Fiction. A shoe showroom stands on its place. Note the same man in both pictures. Isak Ali endures as a longtime living landmark of Basant Lok. Almost everything has changed in this south Delhi market during the time elapsed between the two photos. “At night, I sleep in this same corridor,” he mutters, explaining vaguely that he gets by with the “generosity” of people. Isak Ali recalls that in the old times he would often spend his day sitting outside Fact & Fiction. “I knew the
City Food – Pandit Vaishno Dhaba, Sadar Bazar, Gurgaon Food by The Delhi Walla - September 27, 20220 A veggie affair. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A passerby on the crowded market street abruptly freezes in mid-motion. The head turns, the nose sniffs the air aggressively. Can that be desi ghee? Where’s the smell coming from? A pang of hunger rams through like a sweet ache. And then the eyes spot a sooty black wall, the sooty black windows, and under the windows, a pile of woods. On coming closer, a miasma of scents come forward. There’s the hint of dal, of some subzi, and of ghee-smeared rotis. If smells can evoke places and memories, then here you might summon your childhood home’s most formative recollections. Pandit Vaishno Dhaba in Gurgaon’s Sadar Bazar is a simple vegetarian eatery, specialising in
City Landmark – People’s Publishing House, Connaught Place Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - September 26, 20220 Gorbachev's tomb. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Russia is fighting with Ukraine. Kyrgyzstan is fighting with Tajikistan. Armenia and Azerbaijan too have clashed, yet again, with each other. It all is in this month’s news (September 2022). Mikhail Gorbachev too was buried this month. The death of Soviet Union’s last president bookends the story of the socialist state that contained all these currently warring republics from 1922 to 1991. That said, something of that extinct Soviet Union, or USSR, continues to exist in a little-known Connaught Place bookshop. On entering, you first have to deal with Lenin’s arresting stare. The USSR founder’s hand-painted portrait hangs close to the glass door (the door has a Che Guevara poster). In Marina Arcade since 1948, People’s
City Hangout – Art District, Mandi House Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - September 26, 2022September 26, 20220 A new-look much-loved zone. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here you are, sitting on the steps, in easy intimacy with green grass and smoggy sky. Submerged in solitary thoughts. Or, perhaps arguing with a friend whether Godard really was the James Joyce of cinema. This is the same old Mandi House circle, but fresh off a facelift by the NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Council). It has even got a name—Art District, the metallic grey fonts installed on the plaza that skirts beside Lalit Kala Academy. Being in Mandi House is now giving as much thrill as leafing through the September issue of a fashion magazine, eyeing at all the trends that are going to gild the forthcoming seasons. For
City Walk – Paharai Rajaan, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - September 24, 20220 The hill of the workers [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Who made Taj Mahal? Shah Jahan. No, who actually raised the Taj, stone by stone? Nobody knows. History is mute on the labourers who built the monument. Ditto for Old Delhi’s Red Fort, and Jama Masjid. The one thing you can do is walk in a locality that derives its name from those labourers. “Pahari Rajaan was a pahari (hill) that initially had the houses of raj mistri (labourer), who were building the Jama Masjid and the Lal Qila,” says Naseer-ul-Hassan, who lives in an old house perched at the mouth of Pahari. This lane in Chitli Qabar Chowk goes up a slope, rummaging through a dense web of shops
City Walk – Doors of Vakil Lane, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - September 22, 20220 The lane of doors [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The cracked door has so many long cracks running along so many places that the door is looking like an unironed shirt with creases. The polish on the wood has faded unevenly. The discolouration resembles the patina on a monument’s wall, marking the passage of many seasons. Despite its dilapidation, the door is clinging to the trappings of its former utility. It is locked. The padlock is brown with rust, and looks so weatherbeaten and mildewed that a passerby’s hard, long gaze might force it to give up any moment, and fall on the ground. A wide split towards the bottom of the door reveals a brick wall behind. It is a most
City Home – Saira Bano & Family, Gali Chandi Wali Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - September 22, 2022September 22, 20220 Home sweet home [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An entire household is contained in this room. This household contains a life that has largely disappeared. The second floor apartment in Old Delhi’s Gali Chandi Wali houses a family of zardozi karigars (workers) who “design, embroider and manufacture fabrics of zari thread by hand.” This afternoon, Muhammed Afaq is finishing an embroidery on his traditional “karchup” wooden desk. His younger brother Irshad is doing something similar. Both are perched on the floor. Afaq’s wife, Saira Bano, is sitting on the double bed, combing her hair. Their elder daughter Neha is attending a mehndi-design class at Fatima Academy in Lal Kuan. The younger Ilma, a 10th standard student, is at Anglo-Arabic School in
City Season – Sky Watching, Gurgaon Nature by The Delhi Walla - September 22, 20220 Season's scenes [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sleek Rapid Metro train is sliding noiselessly along the elevated tracks. The glass windows of the high-rises are gleaming under the noonday sun. And tufts of greying clouds are wafting about these tall edifices. The sky upon the Golf Course Road is currently looking magical. But then it is that peculiar in-between season, again. This is a special time of the year when the winter and its pollution is still to set in, and rainy season is almost gone. It is now that Gurgaon’s towers-speckled sky comes into its own. You ought to again experience a host of getaways that are within the city limits, and which shows an ethereal world of