City Faith – Durga Mandir, Paharganj Faith by The Delhi Walla - April 5, 20230 A blessed street. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The lane is alive with the sound of a man singing a bhajan. Everything else this afternoon is quiet, as if to keep the sanctity of the sacred lyrics. The singer is an elderly gentleman in white kurta pajama, sitting cross-legged on an elevated niche, overlooking the cramped lane. The space within is diffused in a lamp’s gold glow. The Durga Mandir is in the backpackers’ district of Paharganj. The singer is the temple’s priest. The temple has a shivling, a statue of Ganeshji, while Durgaji is perched on a roaring lion. Dressed in red, she has genda garlands draped round her neck, the flowers emitting an intensely strong scent. A young woman
City Landmark – The Arches, Lodhi Colony Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - April 5, 20230 The see-through taaks. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] An arch-shaped niche in the wall, the taak is almost history. Some are still sighted in the Walled City. In days gone by, when Delhi homes had no Western-style sofas and people sat on mattresses laid out on the floor, a gawtakiya (bolster) would be placed directly under the central taak. Such alcoves are rarely spotted in multi-storey flats—taaks have been made obsolete by sideboards and shelves. But nobody needs to bother about the congested historic quarter to experience the most unusual taaks in the Delhi region. They came up recently in the newer parts of the city, in the 1940s, and were the work of a foreigner, the British-born architect William Henry