City Faith – Bhajan Circle, Ghaziabad Faith by The Delhi Walla - October 9, 20240 A hyperlocal music society. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This bhajan mandli is their circle of sacred music. Every year, during the nine holy days of Navratri, the ladies jointly offer devotional bhajans at the community temple. “We pray, we observe fast, we sing for each of the nine roop of Maa Shakti,” says one of the ladies. The 20-member music group all live in the same apartment complex in Ghaziabad’s Vasundhara, and the temple is located beside the complex’s gate. All the members are busy homemakers, says a lady, and “we’re all close friends.” One remarkable aspect about the bhajan mandli’s bhajans, explains another lady, is that “they have come down to us from our mothers, who received them from
City Faith – Sufi Qawwali, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Faith by The Delhi Walla - September 3, 2024September 4, 20240 Saqlain & Chand. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Tonight (3 September, '24) Delhi’s most famous sufi shrine will host poetry-filled musical qawwalis until the morning. It is the 810th Jashn-e-Wiladat, or birthday celebrations, of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulya, whose grave constitutes the historic dargah’s heart. Now see the photo of the two qawwal singers snapped in the shrine’s courtyard a week ago. Chand Nizami, right, might be more familiar because of his appearance in a chartbuster film qawwali (you know which!). While the much younger Saqlain is the third son of the greatest qawwal of our times. The two are rarely sighted together. Maybe because they belong to rival qawwal clans. That said, Saqlain’s Nizami Khusro Bandhus and Chand’s Nizami Bandhus
City Neighbourhood – Gali Pyaun Wali, Chawri Bazar Faith Regions Walks by The Delhi Walla - August 4, 20240 Lane with a well and temple. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Maa Durga, Bhagwan Krishen with Radha ji, Devi Sita with Bhagwan Ram, and Hanuman ji… all these divinities are present, their portraits sanctifying the temple’s blue walls. The eyes though are first drawn to Shiv Bhagwan. The life-like statue’s right palm is bestowing a blessing, while the wrists are adorned with marigold malas. The eyes next wander down to something less common for a sanctum sanctorum. A blue hand-pump. It stands where a kuan is said to have existed. For centuries, that well diligently served this part of the Walled City, a passer-by says. Inevitably the place came to be identified as a general pyaun of drinking water for the
City Landmark – Hazrat Amir Khusrau’s 720th Urs, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Faith Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - April 26, 20240 A poet-saint’s anniversary [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] As monuments go by, it is not instantly striking. But it is cloaked in rich layers of histories. In the beginning, it was just a marble grave and remained so for 200 years. Then came a marble headstone erected by emperor Babur. Then came the latticed sandstone enclosure around the grave, erected by emperor Humayun—the inside face of this stone screen has a Persian poem by Humayun himself. Then came the dome erected over the grave during Emperor Akbar’s reign. It was demolished by his son, Emperor Jahangir, who built the rest of the edifice as it exists today. The memorial, important to so many emperors, is of no emperor. It is of
City Faith – Shani Temple, Rao Tula Ram Road Faith by The Delhi Walla - April 9, 2024April 9, 20240 Shrine to Saturday. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once upon a time, very long ago, a Walled City gali was home to a community of citizens called dakot. They workshopped Shani Dev and would ask for dakshina, or donations, as an offering to the said divinity. (A quick Google search describes a ‘dakot’ as a “person who accepts the offerings forwarded on Shani Dev.”) At some point in unrecorded past, they left the lane. All that remains of them today in the Walled City is the name they gave to the street—Gali Dakotan. Where did they scatter? All across Delhi traffic lights, any commuter who has to be out on a Saturday, or Shaniwar, is likely to come across a person carrying
City Faith – Shab-e-Barat Night, Panj Peeran Graveyard Faith by The Delhi Walla - March 5, 20240 Living with the dead. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The midnight moon is shining upon the land beneath, but the land has its own lights. On this night of Shab-e-Barat, a special occasion in the Islamic calendar (commemorated about a week ago), the dead in the city’s graveyards are being visited by their living relatives, as is the tradition. The Panj Peeran Qabristan—graveyard of the five gurus—in central Delhi, beside Lodhi Crematorium, is also packed with hundreds of citizens pacing up and down the ubar-khabar mud tracks. The sights are surreal, dream-like, truly unforgettable. Some graves are crowded with people, but some have only a single visitor. Some graves are lit with a dozen candles, but others have just one.
City Faith – Basant Panchmi, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Faith by The Delhi Walla - February 14, 20240 Season’s greetings. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Someone today will put on a yellow scarf. Somebody else might pick up a yellow turban, or perhaps a yellow kurta. Some other might do with a yellow rose, though yellow mustard flowers are more traditional. This evening, the dargah, or sufi shrine, of Hazrat Nozamuddin Auliya will be packed with citizens in yellow, gathered to greet Basant Panchmi, Delhi’s brief spring season. The tradition of celebrating the Basant in the historic shrine began about seven centuries ago, remarks Peerzada Altamash Nizami, whose family has descended from the aforementioned sufi through his sister’s side (Hazrat Nizamuddin never married). The mild-mannered gentleman in white kurta-pajama vividly details the origins of the dargah’s connection to
City Landmark – Bani Temple, Gurgaon Faith Hangouts Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 7, 2024February 8, 20240 A shrine with a view. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] So surreal. These gigantic stalagmites stranded in the polluted air. They are actually far-off business towers, their view diffused in the winter fog. The scene shifts with a slight turning of the head: now you look down at an assortment of single-storey dwellings. The familiar world is looking unfamiliar from this extraordinary vantage point. One of the most escapist destinations in the Delhi region, Bani Mandir is a temple in Ghata village (pronounced Ghaata). The village lies tucked within the wild ridges of Gurgaon, yet is within eyeshot of the Millennium City’s high-rises. The temple is perched atop a hill; the village lies around the base of this hill. A
City Landmark – Hazrat Chirag Dehli Shrine in Winter, South Delhi Faith General Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - January 17, 20240 Cold courtyard. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The air is windier than elsewhere in the city. The cold too is colder. With its vast courtyard, and its many trees, the sufi shrine of Hazrat Chirag Dehli is one of the most ideal places in the city to experience the Delhi winter. Some might find it a cruel joke to be recommended in this bitter cold to go to a place to feel the intensity of this bitter cold. The idea appears more tolerable on considering the fact that the Delhi winter is like the summer of Shakespeare’s England whose “lease hath all too short a date.” The city’s extreme cold is too brief. The looming heatwave is so much
City Faith – Chitli Qabar Dargah, Chitli Qabar Chowk Faith by The Delhi Walla - November 7, 20230 Sufi shrine, now and then. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The long, curving crack on the discoloured wall evoked the course of a river. A tiny uneven gap through the same wall disconcertingly showed the flower shop on the other side. The size of a small household attic, this chamber in a chaotic four-route Old Delhi chowk is a historic sufi shrine. It gives its name to the chowk as well as to the surrounding bazar. It no longer shows its familiar scruffiness. Last week, the Chitli Qabar dargah was cleansed of its years-old grime. The long crack has been mended, the gap has been filled up, the walls painted to a barely perceptible pink, the floor is free of clutter. (See the