Delhi is becoming less courteous. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] No longer can Delhi's cobblers ply their trade with a clean conscience. With Lajpat Nagar-based journalist Jarnail Singh doing an al-Zaidi on India's home minister during a press conference in the city on April 7th, 2009, not just the soul of Mr Singh's profession but the way we Delhiwallas protest has acquired a new sole. Quite a few Delhiites I talked to have raised sole-stirring questions. "Why throw a joota?" asks Mr Sumantha Roy, a 26-year-old IT professional in Noida. "In these times of pink slips, throwing pink panties would have been a bigger and classier insult." In the recent past, Delhiites haven't thrown just shoes, but also saliva on public figures

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The great city has grown less great.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]The Delhi Walla went to Bombay and felt like a villager. In this city, the traffic moves faster, the local trains chug faster, the people walk faster. The skyscrapers, too, are taller. While Delhi's Rajpath is a hush-hush stretch of trimmed grass, pruned trees, police barricades, Marine Drive with its reclaimed land, high-rises, rush hour traffic is a testament to the materialistic world's enterprise.In Bombay, I went to the old wing of the Taj hotel, the site

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.He died on March 29th, aged 25.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]Qasim Ali, a resident of Daryaganj in Old Delhi, a journalist, an occasional photographer and my friend died on March 29, 2009, aged 25. Early this year he was diagnosed with leukaemia. Thereafter he was admitted in Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, Rohini, from where he was not able to return home. Mr Ali, who is survived by his parents and an elder brother, always encouraged me with my writing. We had also planned to walk around in Daryaganj

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.He is against job reservations for Dalits.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]His life could be like the plot of an old Amitabh Bachchan film. Both his grandfather and father were sweepers. Both met with an accident while on the job. Grandfather died. Father got soft in the head so mother got the father's job. Meanwhile, Mr Praveen Parcha grew up to become a painter by passion with a day-job as a call centre employee. He is a 25-year-old school-dropout who lives in Delhi's Valmiki Sadan, popularly known as Dalit

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Delhi's sole Saturday night gay disco is horrid.[Text by Anonymous; picture by Gigi Elmes; this is a visual representation of Polka Club where photography is not permitted]It is true the arrangements at Kailash Colony's Polka Club, the only Saturday night disco for Delhi's gay people, are completely horrid. (You may also like to read: City Life – Gay Saturdays at Polka Club, Kailash Colony)The organisers at Polka seem to have completely missed out on the 'pink' factor beyond managing to entice the rupee in that colour. Come to think of

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Air conditioners a must to survive Delhi summer.[Text by Satya Prateek; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]Though I understand that The Delhi Walla is not used to queries of such type, much less expect them, his advice could be of great help. I'm an advanced year law student at NUJS, Kolkata and I shall be working at the Centre for Policy Research, Chanakyapuri, during the summer of 2009. However, I'm yet to find a decent accommodation at a place that may make my stay enjoyable for those months. Around two years

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Delhi loves its street cricket.[Text and pictures by mayank Austen soofi]On a Monday noon as hot as this, these boys should have been cooling their heels in their lecture halls. Instead, they are playing cricket at India Gate maidan. All are dressed in white, two wearing hats, and one stretching his limbs. No one seems to be soft-spoken. The age of gentleman cricketers is truly gone. Maa-behen curse words are flying as high as the bowler's ball. If India Gate were a woman, it would have been blushing red. In

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Malling in the time of slump. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]"Happiness can be now bought – on purchases of Rs 10,000." This announcement on a giant hoarding outside Saket's Select Citywalk mall may not cheer Delhi shoppers much. "I don't have spare cash for hardcore shopping," says Mr Amit Chandan, 24, a software engineer who was 'malling' one Monday with his girlfriend. "People in my office are being fired – who knows what may happen to me?" It was a very different world when this mall was thrown