City Life – Tailor Nathuram Ahuja, Ram Nagar
Life in the pandemic. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His routine stayed the same for more than 50 years. Every day he would be in his tailoring shop, working with the fabrics, the sewing machine, the inch tape…
City Life – Samina, the Single Parent, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
Solo living. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was not easy to live alone, so Samina got back with her former partner, a fellow beggar and a one-time cleaner in a hotel. He is also the father of…
City Life – Sonam’s Musician, Vaishali
Recreating known strangers. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In your life too, there must be people you don’t personally know but whom you would often spot in the BC (before corona) era. An ATM guard. A fruit seller….
City Life – Line of Control, Matia Mahal
Dividing line. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old Delhi gets something new. It wasn’t here until yesterday. And now, a glossy white line is running along the Matia Mahal Bazar, slicing its main street in equal halves. “It…
City Life – Lockdown’s Abandoned Phone Numbers, Around Town
The sights of the pandemic. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] When the markets shut down, when the metro stopped running, when those who had the luxury of a house exiled themselves within the walls of those houses, when…
City Life – Raju’s Pandemic Days, Gandhi Nagar
The corona-era life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] As the worries for everyday struggles seem to recede for him, auto rickshaw driver Raju has started to think again of a dream he had before the coronavirus shook his…
City Obituary – Author Sadia Dehlvi, 1957-2020
An author’s life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “I want to be buried here,” said Sadia Dehlvi, the author of Sufism: The Heart of Islam, The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi and Jasmine & Jinns: Memories and Recipes…
City Obituary – Kaloo, Jorbagh, South Delhi, & Cholsey, England
The passing away of an extraordinary life. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] He was born and grew up on the rough Delhi streets. Later in life, when it would rain, he began sleeping on the verandah of a bungalow in Jorbagh…
City Life – The Paris Bound Rooster, Near Pahari Rajaan
A meat shop immortal. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Every day Muhammed Aijaz runs his knife through some 50 chickens at hisOld Delhi meat shop. But one of them refuses to die. The pride-of-place wooden rooster, beautifully carved,…
City Life – Shaheena’s Lockdown Quietude, Old Delhi
The silence of the pandemic. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was never so quiet. So quiet that one could clearly hear the chirping of birds at noon time, as if this were a bird-filled orchard. For more…
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