City Walk – Prithviraj Road, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 7, 2024February 8, 20240 A stroll through exclusivity. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The road is wide. The pavement is also wide, so wide that three or four of us can easily walk together side by side. Meanwhile, the night air is cool and fresh, making Delhi’s smog appears like a rumour. Maybe because it rained a while ago. The road is walled on both side with gigantic peepals, pilkhans, jamuns and (unbelievably massive) banyans. The traffic is scant. Only 10pm but such deep sannata, as if it were midnight. The city seems to be asleep. But honestly, which city is this? Certainly not the everyday Delhi we are familiar with. Speckled with sprawling bungalows, Prithviraj Road is mostly the address of the extreme
City Vox Popili – A Life in Pooja’s Day, Sector 50, Gurgaon Life by The Delhi Walla - February 4, 20240 As part of The Delhi Walla series asking citizens to “write down everything you did in one day.” Send yours in 400 words max to thedelhiwallasoofi@gmail.com [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] [By Pooja Matta, a chartered accountant, in Gurgaon’s Sector 50.] So how does my day go? I have an 11-month-old girl who charts out my entire day for me. Today was all about finishing Oppenheimer, a movie my husband and I had rented on New Year's eve. One being more excited than the other, we started the movie the night before, could not finish it and ascribed it to the noise coming from the New Year's party. We tried very hard, mind you. But our baby had something else in store. That morning, being
City Landmark – Abdul Sattar’s Stairway, Pahari Imli Landmarks Life by The Delhi Walla - February 3, 20240 Scholar's book. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Forty stairs of stone link the second-storey house to the lane below, down the hilly slopes of Pahari Imli. That lane comes out on a busy main street, onto which also come out many streets of the Walled City. This staircase was Abdul Sattar’s connection to the labyrinthine world of his beloved Purani Dillli. Every day, the Old Delhi scholar would go down to reunite with the Walled City’s gallis and kuchas, its havelis and libraries, its timelessness and transformation, its beauty and chaos. Sometimes, he would be dressed in traditional white kurta-pajama, sometimes he would be in a brown three-piece suit (with a French-style beret). He would spend hours with friends, chatting about
City Landmark – Old Bungalows, Patel Nagar Hangouts Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 1, 20240 Fading ghosts. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The faded yellow paint of the exteriors have peeled off in many places—is probably peeling off at this moment too, while you read these words. The old paint underneath the yellow, resurfacing, has the dull pink glow of a perpetual sunset. The building seems empty. Facing the smoggy road, it stands between modern glass-grey edifices. The bungalow is a souvenir of the old Patel Nagar. The central Delhi locality is littered with similarly elegant residues of our city’s recent past. Some houses are tucked deep within the back-lanes, adorned with the the chippy floors and swirly staircases of decades-old architectural trends. A few of these look forlorn. They must be vacant, awaiting their turn
City Hangout – Braid Shopping, Chitli Qabar Bazar Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - February 1, 2024February 1, 20240 The hanging parandas. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Bangles, rusks (they are Delhi’s best rusks!), malai wali chai, flower sehras for brides and grooms, carrot halwa (including the rare white carrot halwa), wall clocks, bullet coffee (only in winter), crockery, goat meat, jewellery, artificial jewellery, mehendi powder, nebulizer, vegetables, burqas, fish, lehengas, nihari, crisp new crackling currency notes (exchanged for torn notes), sandals, dahi bada… you name it and Old Delhi’s Chitli Qabar Bazar will have a shop selling it. The historic market also has the city’s most extensive button shop, dedicated to buttons alone. It has also shops selling parandas, or chotis, the artificial braids. These hanging parandas of Chitli Qabar are among the most arresting sights of the bazar,