City Landmark – Maqbool Sons Tailoring Shop, Mohan Singh Place
Founder’s story. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi wouldn’t exist as a major metro without its countless small enterprises. Like this family-owned tailoring shop launched years ago by an enterprising UP villager seeking a better standard of living…
City Landmark – Paakar Tree, Constitution Club of India, Central Delhi
A most luxuriant nobility. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If trees like this didn’t exist, they would have been hard to imagine. Consider, if you will, this luxurious Paakar tree providing more-than-welcome shade. Here at a side garden…
City Landmark – Hafizji’s Old Clock Shop, Old Delhi
Lost time regained. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is truly an inner sanctum for all those who pine for old time. Dozens of old clocks bearing unfamiliar names line the walls of this watch repair establishment in…
City Landmark – Button Shop, Near Chitli Qabar Chowk
Ali Baba’s treasure. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s just a hole-in-the wall shop, and pretty easy to button down. Because, it’s all about buttons. Only buttons, a warehouse of thousands, many trimmed with laces and countless other…
City Landmark – The Summertime Pilkhan Tree, Feroz Shah Kotla
The perfect eye candy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The blistering hot April is actually the kindest month. The world is now teeming with a kind of extraordinary beauty that you don’t have to seek by driving all…
City Landmark – A Disappearing Doorway, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
A beauty from the past. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It will be a great pity to walk right past that peeling cobwebbed doorway, padlocked for years, without giving it a close second look. This is an architectural…
City Landmark – Jain Paan House, KG Marg
Small wonder. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Any number of kiosks in our fair city attract a steady stream of regular customers who show a loyalty that grand showrooms might well envy. There’s Jain Paan House on KG…
City Landmark – City News Service, Connaught Place
The print media landmark. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s hardly a secret that these are difficult days for print media—because of the Internet. Here in Delhi, it’s hard to find all-day newspaper stalls anymore. Even so, a…
City Landmark – Premier Shoe Factory, Sadar Bazaar, Gurgaon
The old time jewel. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There are places in the National Capital Region where every little or big landmark gives an illusion that it must have come up around the year 2000. Dwarka, for…
City Landmark – Rafugar Sajid Suhail’s Establishment, Chawri Bazaar
The last of his kind. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He first learnt rafu—the noble art of darning—from his father, who in turn was taught by a master. Even so, Sajid Suhail, Chawri Bazaar’s only full-time rafugar, sincerely…
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