City Hangout – The Book Hub, Batla House
Shop of used books [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The tiny basement room is crammed with just too many writers. A perfect place for bookworms to burrow into the delicious smells of musty well-thumbed pages. The Book Hub…
City Walk – Kucha Neelkanth, Old Delhi
The place of the blue-throated [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] At the time of the churning of the Ocean of Milk, the giant serpent Vasuki — who was being used as a rope, the mountain Mandara being the…
City Food – Kulhar Chai, Juhi’s Tea
Tea while lounging. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Poor Paris. That city has many sidewalk cafés, with awnings sheltering the patrons from rain and sunshine. But not one serving chai in earthen kulhar. Delhi, be proud. Here’s a…
Mission Delhi – Rashmi Gautam, South Delhi
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] She approaches the passerby with cool composed confidence. He looks hassled. Her face all smiles, she shows him a pamphlet-like thing she is holding in…
City Food – Kallan Bawarchi, Matia Mahal
Landmark kitchen. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The potbellied cauldrons. The long metal ladles. The platters with chopped green chillies. The smoke-blackened walls. Air smelling of elaichi, laung, mirchi, pyaz, adrak, lehsun. Here is the timeless world of…
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Labourer Salman Abbas, Around Town
The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Salman Abbas’s day is full of physically exhausting work. In between assignments, the young labourer lies down on the long wooden bench of his employer’s warehouse in central Delhi, and instantly falls into…
City Food – Hello to the Queen, Paharganj
Homage to the Queen. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The queen died. Nobody can say with certainty if Hello to the Queen was named after her. Even so, treating yourself to this unusual dessert would have been one…
City Food – Panditji Doodhwale, Near Galli Sooiwallan Street
Milky way. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The peepal tree in Old Delhi’s Tiraha Behram Khan oozes out vibes of steadfast reassurance. So much is changing so furiously, but it continues to stand at its appointed place, like…
Mission Delhi – Rashika, Redeveloped Central Vista
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] So frustrating. Little Rashika is always ready to break into a dance, she has her own YouTube channel, after all. But here, she is as…
City Hangout – Pond-Side Trees, Redeveloped Central Vista
First day in the new Central Vista. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] These don’t look like happy trees. Sad and despairing, they in fact remind one of Ophelia, the grief-stricken heroine in Shakespeare’s Hamlet who dies by drowning….
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