City Sighting – Arundhati Roy, Hauz Khas Village
Delhi’s most notorious seditionist. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening, The Delhi Walla sighted his most beloved Delhiite – author Arundhati Roy. She was walking down an alley in Hauz Khas Village, south Delhi. Ms Roy was…
City Landmark – Walled City Museum, Lahore Gate Chowk
Delhi’s saddest museum. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opened in 2004, the Walled City museum in Lahore Gate smells of urine. Housed in the Shri Narayan haveli, circa 1929, the windowpanes are broken, the door is unlocked, the…
Mission Delhi – Usha Hooda, Hauz Khas Village
One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s mid-morning but it doesn’t matter to her. “Time doesn’t exist in my life,” says painter Usha Hooda as she dabs her brush in…
City Secret – Mangarbani, near Chattarpur
Delhi’s most beautiful forest. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] You don’t have to fly to Copenhagen or Cancun to save the planet. The other day The Delhi Walla joined Pradip Krishen, author of Trees of Delhi, for an…
City Moment – Sealed With a Kiss, Paharganj
The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla was one afternoon taking a stroll in a by-lane in Paharganj, a claustrophobic neighbourhood near New Delhi railway station. While the principal street is lined with…
City Hangout – A Booklover’s Connaught Place
The definitive Delhi guide for book lovers. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The book is not dead. Not in Connaught Place, central Delhi’s colonial-era shopping district. One winter afternoon, The Delhi Walla visited all the bookshops in the…
The Biographical Dictionary of Delhi – Ronald Vivian Smith, b. Agra, 1938
The definitive directory of famous Delhiites. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Of all the authors who made Delhi the central theme of their literary lives, the case of Ronald Vivian Smith is the most intriguing. He has given…
The Delhi Walla Books – Novelist Anuja Chauhan’s Review
A bestselling author’s verdict. [By Anuja Chauhan] They say one of the greatest simple joys you can experience is to become a tourist in your own city. Just two books have actually made me do that – the first is…
City Landmark – People’s Publishing House, Connaught Place
Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Vladimir Ilyich Lenin has an arresting stare. Meet the Marxist revolutionary at a bookstore in the capitalistic Connaught Place, central Delhi’s premium shopping district. His portrait hangs close to…
Photo Essay – Are Newspapers Dead?
The ‘daily’ life in Delhi. [Edited text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Mizo woman was walking towards her home in Moti village near Dhaula in south Delhi when the men in a vehicle abducted her and took turns…
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