City Monument – A Perspective of Jama Masjid, Old Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - February 28, 20240 The Dilli style. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Typical Delhi aesthetics, some might say. Two eras co-existing side by side. One belongs to the 17th century. One belongs to our time. One is of red sandstone, other of smooth metal. One is a tower, topped with a small dome. The other is a pole, topped with nine lamps. The former is a minar of Old Delhi’s historic Jama Masjid. The other illumines this slice of Old Delhi, post-sunset. Conscientious citizens who have seen other great cities of the world—Paris, Venice, etc.—tend to note that, in those places, no modern structure is allowed to alter the visual panorama of a monument. When a modern contraption comes in front of a historic
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Gulam Muhammed Malik, Public Library Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - February 27, 20240 Waiting for Godot. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The same handsome gaunt face, the same lean figure. The hawk-like eyes glinting in immersive thoughts, the meditative lines on the forehead, and the smart short-cropped grey hair. He is every inch a Samuel Beckett (have you read his Waiting for Godot?!). The only thing missing is the Gucci hobo bag that the great Irish playwright was seen holding in an iconic photograph. Gulam Muhammed Malik is a retired school teacher from Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir, who spends the winter months at his daughter’s home in less cold Delhi. Here, he often hangs out in a public library, poring upon books and newspapers. That’s exactly what he is doing this afternoon.
City Nature – Songs of Semal, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - February 26, 20240 Red season. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Late-February afternoon. Auto rickshaw carting the commuter along one of the loopy highways of the circuitous AIIMS flyover. Sky is pitch blue. Other sights totally unremarkable. Suddenly, a tree dotted with red. The blossoming of semal marks the debut of Delhi’s most tolerable season — neither cold nor hot. Unidentifiable the rest of the year, these trees abruptly become as apparent as the red-capped ear cleaners of Turkman Gate Bazar. Semal is among the 252 species of trees found in the Delhi region (Poor New York has only 130!). The tiered branches shoot out from the trunk like the ribs of a parasol. Look out for semal in Delhi’s diplomatic avenues, such as Neeti
City Neighbourhood – Gali School Wali, Old Delhi Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 26, 20240 Lane of doorways. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Standing outside an archaic blue doorway, a man in blue (see photo) is singing a tragically worded lullaby, pleading for alms. He pauses, stands silently for some time, and walks away, going past a pink doorway, similarly patterned, past a green doorway, similarly patterned, past… oh well, this Walled City lane is extraordinary for being full of arched doorways. Each is an intricately detailed piece of art, many revealing a skeletal frame of slim narrow lakhori bricks, the building material of yesteryears. The only structure in Gali School Wali that looks contemporary—meaning, as grey and featureless as any building—is the municipality-run school from which the gali gets its name. On a more considered
City Walk – Civil Lines, Gurugram Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 23, 20240 A walk for a civil season. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The fog is gone. The smog isn’t so visible. The sky is of a rare blue, at least on certain days. It is that magical time of the year when the bitter cold has receded and heat is still to become unbearable. This is the best period to repeat a quiet walk in one of Delhi’s quietest, most serene places—the Civil Lines in Gurugram. Start with the old wing of the historic Church of Epiphany (see photo), consecrated in 1866 by the Bishop of Calcutta for a handful of British officers. A stroll around the red building reveals its colonial-era origins—the slim lancet windows, the small bell tower, the
City Monument – Kalan Masjid, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti Monuments by The Delhi Walla - February 22, 2024February 22, 20240 A souvenir around the corner. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Shut your eyes. Walk carefully, lest you stumble. Pockmarked with a pothole, the rutty claustrophobic alley is very narrow, very dark, flanked by grim faded walls. Now, open your eyes. Suddenly, you are in friendly exteriors flooded with warm running daylight. The next moment is the most amazing. Some people tend to exclaim, “O my God!” Many others are stunned into silence. Being such an aged city, Delhi is crammed with breathtakingly beautiful monuments. This historic landmark in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti is barely known, certainly less grand than many others. But the awe it commands, if you approach it from the aforementioned alley, is the most intense triggered by any of
Mission Delhi – Imran, Central Delhi Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - February 21, 2024February 21, 20240 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Four rotis and masoor dal—that is Imran’s lunch this afternoon. He cooked it in the morning. He always does. Tasked for the loading and unloading of goods in a central Delhi commercial establishment, he settled down to his self-made meal some minutes ago in a corner of the workplace. Surrounded by cardboard cartons, this tiny vacant portion of the floor is his metaphoric table for one. “When you have been alone in a big city for a long time, you learn to make your own khana,” he says. Imran lives with colleagues in a rented apartment in Lakshmi Nagar, “but each one of us cook separately.” In his 20s,
City Life – Disappeared Citizens, Around Town Life by The Delhi Walla - February 20, 20240 Seeing the ‘missing’. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] “ Rafiq, son of Ismail, aged 62, is missing. He was last seen in Saket.”—This flier is spotted on a wall in Jangpura. ‘Missing people’ are found across Delhi. Their posters are plastered on walls, on electric poles, on the trunk of trees, on the back of autorickshaws (see photo). And lately in the shopping corridors of Connaught Place, where computerised screens at phone charging points display faces of the disappeared, the reel running in a loop. (These days, notices are shared on social media as well, where they pass through thousands of attentive eyes in a very short time). Many of these fliers tend to be in English, many others prefer Hindi. Whatever,
City Landmark – Bedil’s Tomb & Bharat Mandapam, Mathura Road Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 19, 2024February 20, 20240 Long-ago poet these times. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi is changing so fast. Just across the road are the sleek edifices of Pragati Maidan’s Bharat Mandapam. They came up last year, replacing the decades-old Hall of Nations. But on this side of the busy Mathura Road, nothing has changed. The dusty leaf-strewn ground is littered with derelict graves. The centrepiece is the tomb of one of the world’s great poets, though forgotten in the city in whose mitti he has found his everlasting rest. Understandable perhaps, for Abdul Qadir Bedil (1642–1720) wrote in Persian, which was a language of the elite in the India of his time. Besides, his poetry is considered tough to crack. That said, Bedil is a
City Walk – Gali Mochiyan, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 18, 20240 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] If it were faithful to its name, Gali Mochiyan this afternoon would be full of shoe makers at work. Instead, the gali is resonating with the whirring of a sewing machine. No “mochi” lives in Gali Mochiyan any longer, mutters a passer-by. Another gives his dissent to the assertion, explaining that “a community of shoe makers resided in this street many years ago, but down the generations those dwellers have either moved out, or changed the profession.” Meanwhile, a woman in black approaches the source of the machine sound. On reaching the counter at Rushda Fancy Tailor, she demands a “piko” for her dupatta. She could as well