City Landmark – Ramlila Maidan, Central Delhi
Living to its name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Break Dance, Joy Wheel, Columbus, Cross, Tora Tara… such are the names of the joy rides that have sprung up here. There’s a toy train too. Sandwiched like a…
City Landmark – Muhammed Rafi’s Shaving Stall, Ajmeri Gate
Time’s veteran. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Look at this monument. It has been standing on this spot for years and years. An unsuspecting person will naturally mistake the monument in question for Ajmeri Gate, one of the…
City Landmark – Bahrisons Booksellers, Khan Market
Icon at 70. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is 48. He joined the bookshop when he was 21. Today, Bahrisons Booksellers turns 70. And Mithilesh Singh (see photo) is its longest serving and most senior staffer. Founded…
City Landmark – Maktaba Jamia Limited, Urdu Bazar
The book house. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Amid shelves packed tight with books, two men in white kurta-pajama are browsing intently, their bodies barely moving. In a darkened book-lined chamber within, a ladder is going up to…
City Landmark – Lodhi Colony Railway Station, Central Delhi
Where time stops. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The railway station’s façade is tiny, cute, toy-like, comprising of two windows and a short flight of staircase. The foyer inside is dusty, littered with heaps of dry leaves. A…
City Landmark – Mobile Phone Statues, South Extension
Installations in a changing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] See the smiling woman on the bench staring at her mobile. Maybe she’s reading a WhatsApp joke, or binge-watching those funny Instagram reels with high-pitched laughing sound effects….
City Landmark – Bargad Tree, GB Road
Like a guard [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Like a conscientious guard, it stands rigid and upright at the starting point of GB Road, also known as Shradhanand Marg. The road is lined with shops that sell toilet…
City Landmark – Phool Mandi, Daryaganj
Brassai’s stones. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Parisian Cobblestones, shot in 1931. It is one of the most iconic photographs by Brassai, the celebrated chronicler of nighttime Paris. Our Delhi is not Brassai’s Paris. But this place in…
City Landmark – New Bharat Hair Dresser, Khan Market
The market story. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Muse, let’s again sing of the tony Khan Market. The fashionable front lane has a foreign-origin confectionary; something like the Haldiram of Paris. It opened during the pandemic, and by…
City Landmark – Five Graves, Around Town
In the city of tomns. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Good puzzle would be to cross Delhi without passing a grave. Sometimes anonymous graves lie clustered in neighbourhood alleys (see photo). Here are the city’s five lesser known…
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