City Walk – Gali Sui Walan, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 31, 20230 The street of the tailor's needle. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Thickness of a hair; tiny opening at one end. It is the sui, the tailor’s needle, and this barely tangible thing lends its name to this super-bustling Old Delhi street. But Gali Sui Walan ought to be called Gali Roti Wale. So many roti bakeries here: Bhaijaan Roti Wale, Bhoore Khan Roti Wale (the owner, Bhoore Khan, wears Lucknowi white kurtas), Raees Dhaba (it also serves nihari after 7.30pm), Babulal Hotel (unlike other roti places that make tandoori roti, it specialises in handkerchief-thin roomali roti). The last of these places bears the publicity banner of Bhai Yaseen Gusal Wale, a 24-hour funeral facility in Pahari Imli promising free service
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Aarti Talwar, Somewhere in Delhi Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - October 31, 20230 The parlour confession. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Besides having a day-job in the corporate world, Aarti Talwar is the co-founder of The Dandelion Collective, a book club that completes a year this October. She agreed to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire series in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. Your chief characteristic. I am a reader and by virtue of that, a thinker. Your favorite qualities in a man. The ability to take a no without being offended. Your favorite qualities in a woman. Same. What do you appreciate the most in your friends? The fact that they are drama-less! Your main fault. My only fault has been looking back to bad times and holding on
City Obituary – The Book Shop, Jor Bagh Market Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 30, 20230 Passing of a place. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Miles Davis’s moody music fills the room. An elegant woman is sitting, surrounded by books. The rest is silence and sakoon. This was an evening scene from some years ago at The Book Shop. The Jor Bagh landmark is shutting down tomorrow. Rachna Singh, the founders’ eldest daughter, broke the news yesterday on social media, saying: “The Book Shop has had its season, now it’s time to move on.” She said “we will dissolve the partnership that owns it.” The other partner, Sonal Narain, is moving the business to adjacent Lodhi Colony Market, with the same stock and staff. The Bookshop Inc will open on November 1. The Book Shop’s original edition was
City Season – Floss Silk Flowers, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - October 27, 20230 Season's shade. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Blue is marrying into green, and green is marrying into pink. Here, near Humayun’s tomb. The blue constitutes the dome of the centuries-old Neela Gumbad; the green is the lush foliage of the surrounding trees. These two elements exist throughout the year. The pink is a guest, belonging to this season. Floss silk flowers are in bloom. This same pink is smeared thicker, wider some distance away in Lodhi Garden, which has a great number of floss silk trees. The flowers fall continually, discreetly, making the grassy ground beneath the trees smoulder like a bed of pink-hot coals. This afternoon, in one of the remoter expanses within the garden, far from the walking tracks,
City Food – Black Halwa, Ballimaran Food by The Delhi Walla - October 25, 20230 A dessert changes its name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is one of Old Delhi’s most iconic desserts, but Its name is a racist slur, the Hindustani equivalent of the N-word. And now the owner of an establishment that is universally acknowledged to rustle out the tastiest version of this dessert has agreed to its rechristening. “This mithai’s present identity is a part of traditions, but we must move with the times… my next batch of mithai boxes will be printed with the new name of Black Halwa and not H₹&@* Halwa,” declares Feroz Ahmed of the landmark Ghanta Ghar Wala mithai shop. The soft-spoken man however gently points out that the dish is actually brown. Whatever, the black halwa
Mission Delhi – Rakesh, Matia Mahal Bazar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 2023October 23, 20230 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Tomorrow is Dussehra. The day after he will leave our city, and will return a year later, for the next Dussehra. But this moment as you observe Rakesh as he walks down the bazar hawking his many toys, he seems so rooted to the city street, so connected to the evening shoppers milling around him. So completely integrated to the texture of the place. It is impossible to imagine him to be a “pardesi,” a man not of this city, but of a town a few hours train trip away. “I come from Aligarh every year around Dussehra for 10-15 days... toy sales go up like a rocket
City Monument – Dilli Gate, Najafgarh Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 21, 2023October 21, 20230 A namesake. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world has many Dilli Gates. There is a Dilli Gate in Lahore. There is a Dilli Gate in Ajmer. In Bharatpur. In Aligarh. In our very own Ghaziabad. All these centuries-old stone portals must have faced the direction to Delhi. Old Delhi also has a Dillii Gate—it is one of the four surviving gateways of the mostly vanished wall of the Walled City. Sadly, Old Delhi’s Dilli Gate is as dead as a grave. Locked, empty. But this Dilli Gate in Delhi’s Najafgarh pulsates with hyperactive life. A government website on monuments explains it as “the main gateway of Najafgarh fort built by Mirza Najaf Khan during the reign of Shah Alam
City Life – Ramlila Actors, Ramlila Ground Life by The Delhi Walla - October 20, 2023October 20, 20230 Once in a year. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The crown gracing his head, the smooth folds of his dress--every inch the King Dashrath. But the Raja Dashrath sitting on this plain Jane plastic chair is also a mobile phone company’s area sales manager. As is the custom every year around Dusshera, hundreds of Ramlilas are being staged in Delhi. Each of these theatrical representations of Bhagwan Ram’s saga revolves around characters who are as familiar to us as water and fire. But these men and women of a long-ago era happen to be people like us—the actors who portray these characters, their lives sinewed with the usual jobs and routines. Sitting backstage during the third of the ten nights
City Season – Saptaparni Blossoms, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - October 18, 20230 In search of flowers. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Last night was a violent night, à la Wuthering Heights. There was thunder, lightning, and for a few minutes the hissing wind raged like a storm. This overcast morning, unlike the sunny morning yesterday, the ground under the tree is barely littered with its flowers. Perhaps most of the blossoms were swept away by the storm. The tree that until the day before was full of flowers is bare of them, here near Ashram crossing. Hopefully the short season of saptaparni, lasting from mid-October to December, shall not meet a premature end. And this saptamarni tree will be re-decked with flowers. Unlike the golden-yellow Amaltases or the red Gulmohurs, saptaparni flowers aren’t attention
City Landmark – Ramlila Maidan, Central Delhi Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 17, 20230 Living to its name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Break Dance, Joy Wheel, Columbus, Cross, Tora Tara… such are the names of the joy rides that have sprung up here. There’s a toy train too. Sandwiched like a no man’s land between New Delhi and Old Delhi, the historic Ramlila Maidan lives up to its name only for ten nights every year when it stages Ramlila—the theatrical depiction of Bhagwan Ram’s saga, spanning from his birth to the lighting of Ravan’s effigy. The night before was the first night of this year’s Ramlila. This late morning, handfuls of joyride operators are fixing up their respective joyride. Otherwise the ground is empty. But packed. Beyond these joy rides is the vast seating