City Landmark – Midland Bookshop, Shopping Mall, Gurgaon
A link in the chain. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Many snobby Delhiites crib about Gurgaon as a destination with nothing about culture and everything about malls (as if malls were not an integral part of our modern…
City Landmark – Ice Stall, Gurgaon
A journey to Iceland. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Iceland is far towards the polar north of the globe, and the flight tickets aren’t cheap to its capital, Reykjavik. But then there’s another land of ice, and that…
City Landmark – Cheap Electricals, Ganj Meer Khan
The most instagrammable store. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sight is more than merely amazing. It’s incredibly instagrammable. The entire store is crammed with used electricals as a kind of monument to our modern civilization. All manners…
City Landmark – Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Face, National Museum
Sufi faces. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi is one of the most important Sufi shrines in the world. Not only does it attracts Sufi pilgrims and devotees from everywhere, it…
City landmark – Gurgaon Club, Civil Lines, Gurgaon
The watering hole that was. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Iced beer and bridge tables, pukka sahibs and uniformed butlers. This is the mise-en-scène instantly evoked by the mere thought of colonial-era clubs that sprang up in every…
City Landmark – Balkrishna Shivram Moonje, Outside New Delhi Railway Station
The statue outside the station. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One of the many fates that can befall a human is immortaliation — in the shape and form of a statue. Chances are nobody will glance twice at…
City Landmark – A Civic Mortuary, Gurgaon
A face of life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A yard lined with rooms, a small temple under a banyan tree and a few bare hospital-like stretchers. This is not a place you would like to visit even…
City Landmark – Wali’s Hair-Cutting Saloon, Bazaar Chitli Qabar
The heart of the Walled City. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi has all sorts of places you’ll visit when it’s high time to feel good about yourself. Perhaps the stone steps of a good old Jain…
City Landmark – Elite Bookstore, Ber Sarai
Scholar’s world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You can’t really squeeze very many customers into this tiny bookshop at any one time. Nor do the plastic chairs and noisy ceiling fan suggest the true nature of the just-named…
City landmark – A Hindu Graveyard, Kali Bari Temple, CR Park
A memorial to Bengalis. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Losing a loved one is a universal experience. And honouring their lives is hardly unusual. How does one go about it? Christians and Muslims alike immortalize their dearly departed…
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