City Faith – Hazrat Amir Khusro’s 719th Urs, Hazrat Nizamuddin Sufi Shrine Faith by The Delhi Walla - May 6, 20230 Commemorating a legend. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Attention please. Now is the most important time in the calendar of Delhi’s poetry aficionados. Usually, a person’s birth anniversary is celebrated. In poet Amir Khusro’s case, it is his death. The reason is his connections to Sufism, in which a mystic’s death anniversary — known as Urs, the Arabic for wedding — symbolises the union of the lover with the beloved, God. Tomorrow (May 7) is the poet’s 719th Urs. The celebrations will begin on Sunday evening in central Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, the site of Khusro’s grave. Belonging to 14th century Delhi, Khusro died at 72, six months after his mentor Nizamuddin’s passing. He was buried across the courtyard from Nizamuddin’s grave.
City Hangout – Frangipani Yard, Nehru Park & Elsewhere Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - May 5, 2023May 5, 20230 Heaven on earth. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Last night the moon broke and fell into pieces. Some of those pieces fell in central Delhi, close to the prime minister’s residence. In Nehru Park. See photo. Citizens obsessed with verifiable empirical evidence might challenge the assertion, dismissing these moon shards as fallen frangipani flowers (tomayto, tomahto!). Whatever, this little yard in Nehru Park, confined within intersecting walking tracks, is among the most beautiful sights in the capital region these days. This evening, the ground is studded with these frangipanis. The flowers have obviously dropped from the yard’s many trees, leaving their branches totally nude. To gaze upon a lone frangipani is like being absorbed by a timeless Vermeer or Van Gogh. So
City Life – Villages of Gurgugram, Gurgaon Village Life by The Delhi Walla - May 5, 20230 Village in the city. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] You see those buildings? Those were the khet, carpeted with gehu, once upon a recent time. The housing block there was a baagh of ber, the very berries that Shabri offered to Bhagwan Ram. The man remarked one afternoon, pointing out these places. Turning around, he asked sarcastically: “Do you know roti ka atta comes from gehu, and rice comes from dhan?” This wise citizen actually lives in a village. His village falls within Gurugram, the Millennium City of high-rises. And the village he is showing off with such a strong sense of ownership is Gurgaon (not to be confused with Gurugram, albeit this village originally gave its name to the whole
City Food – Shikanji, Matia Mahal & Elsewhere Food by The Delhi Walla - May 5, 20230 The machine lemonade. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He fills up the glass with “machine ka thanda paani.” Flicks into it a chammach-full of cheeni. Squeezes a lemon. Tosses in ice cubes. Salt too. Stirs. Your shikanji please. This is Babloo Bhai’s refrigerated cold water cart in Gurgaon’s Shankar Chowk. His sugary shikanji is simple to make. Now board a Yellow Line Metro up north to Old Delhi’s labyrinthine galis-kuchas-katras. Here, shikanji-making is more complicated, involving stirring as well as shaking. In a Mohalla Qabristan alley, this rainy afternoon, shikanji maker Hamid is standing behind his “shikanji machine” — a wooden cylindrical vessel wrapped in red. The scene is precious. To spot a shikanji walla with this hefty apparatus is becoming as
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Lafazuddin, Dilli Gate Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - May 3, 20230 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] He just finished his lunch, and is ready to launch into his second round of collecting discards from the city streets, here in Dilli Gate. Waste recycler Lafazuddin agreed to be a part of our Proust Questionnaire series in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. The principal aspect of your personality. I don’t ask for anything from God. Your favorite qualities in a man. My experience says that no man has any good quality. What do you appreciate the most in your friends? My past friendships were mistakes. The only one I know in the city is the mahajan to whom I sell my day’s collections. Your favorite occupation. Ghoomo phiro, aur khao
City Hangout – The Delhi Walla’s Speech on Hazrat Nizamuddin Area, Sunder Nursery Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - May 1, 2023May 1, 20231 Text of The Delhi Walla's speech delivered during the release of DK Eyewitness Guide: Humayun's Tomb, Sunder Nursery and Nizamuddin on April 29. [Photos by Narendra Swain of Aga Khan Trust for Culture] Hello friends. You know, I’d like to buy all the copies of this book and keep them locked inside my closet. Seriously. Seeing the cover, the title, makes me feel super-possessive about the places in it. For this is my ilaka, my area. Every little nukkar, lane, park here feels a part of my private homeland. Sometimes I want to be reborn as a bird who can spend all its day flying upon this golden triangle of Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, Nizamuddin East-West-Basti, and the Humayun Tomb-Sunder Nursery complex. Indeed,
From The Delhi Walla Archives – A Selection of Prints, “Somewhere in Delhi”, Second Batch Delhi Archives by The Delhi Walla - May 1, 2023July 5, 20230 Tangible souvenirs [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Hello friends! I’ve come out with a second batch of “Somewhere in Delhi” prints! The selection is curated and designed by Venetian designer Anna Gerotto, and professionally printed on high quality Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 paper. Each print is signed and numbered by its writer-snapper— me! These tangible souvenirs are intended to carry a spirit of the work I have been doing non-stop day and night in the lanes of Delhi—since 2007! Three new options! Write to me for details at mayankaustensoofiarchive@gmail.com. Somewhere in Delhi 1. "Portrait of 4pm" 2. "Rose man" 3. "Egg crate"
City Hangout – Dilli Gate Nukkar, Old Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - May 1, 20230 In the big city, a small town. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Khurja, Kalpi, Najibabad, Sandeela… these are the small towns where expresses never stop. The train hisses by the platform in great speed and arrogance. Sympathetic window-side passengers though might wonder at the world existing beyond the station. They must come to this nukkar in Old Delhi’s Dilli Gate. The street corner, appended with a tall peepal tree, is part of a crossing whose official name since last year is Pandit Rallaram Sharma Chowk. Its like the city center of one of those towns airdropped in the middle of nowhere. This afternoon, the nukkar is a kumbh of diverse occupations: rat poison seller, chooran seller, coconut slice seller, melon seller
City Food – Bel Juice, Ashram & Elsewhere Food by The Delhi Walla - May 1, 20230 Brief and intense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A chunk of the sunset scooped out of the evening sky, put into a platter, softened with a cupful of creamy milk, kneaded into a dough of very viscous consistency. This is how it is looking like. The thick pulpy bel, or wood apple, stored inside street hawker Pramod’s earthen pitcher, here in Ashram. When some of this is plopped into a glass of sugared water, it becomes bel juice. The bel juice carts are popping up across the summer-time streets of the megapolis. In Gurgaon, Nand Ram who hawks gajak and roasted peanuts in the winter returned to bel some weeks ago. His cart looks the same as it did around this time