City Moment – Feeding the Soul, Connaught Place
The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One cold morning The Delhi Walla saw a woman vendor in the F-block of the colonial-era shopping district Connaught Place. The showrooms were still closed. The Inner Circle corridors…
City Food – Paan, Around Town
The magic leaf. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A foreign art critic visiting Delhi’s Connaught Place may be forgiven for thinking its red-splattered corridors are a form of abstract expression. Although the dirty white pillars of the colonial-era…
City Obituary – New Book Depot, 1925-2012
The legendary bookstore in Connaught Place becomes history. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] New Book Depot, the legendary bookshop in the colonial-era Connaught Place known for its vast collection of classics as well as for its eccentric owner,…
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians – III, Indian Coffee House
A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the third meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas wanting to discuss French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Sunday noon we read his masterpiece,…
Book Review – Secrets, by Ruskin Bond
Seen better days. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The language of author Ruskin Bond, who spent his early childhood in a bungalow in central Delhi’s Atul Grover Marg, is not the kind of English we connect with ad…
Mission Delhi – Pradip Krishen, Mangarbani
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Walking down the hilly slope, he says, “It’s like a little museum of what the rocky past of the ridge must have looked like before…
City Hangout – Everest Café, Paharganj
Cramped and cool. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] At an altitude of 239 metres, Everest Café cannot fit more than a dozen people at any given time. Tucked in a shaded lane, it is off the main street…
Photo Essay – Khawaja Moinuddin Chishty, Ajmer Sharif
The holy land of sufis. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The final days of 2011 have ended on a happy note. The Delhi Walla was in the sufi pilgrim town of Ajmer. 400km west of Delhi, it is…
City Notice – Lonely Planet Recommends The Delhi Walla
It’s official. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Published in December 2011, Lonely Planet’s Discover India: Experiencing the best of India is written by Abigail Hole and Kevin Raub. In the ‘Need to Know’ box of its Delhi section, the guidebook refers…
City Reading – The Delhi Proustians – II, Indian Coffee House
A la recherche du temps perdu. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is the second meeting of The Delhi Proustians, a club for Delhiwallas wanting to discuss French novelist Marcel Proust. Every Sunday noon we have to read…
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