City Life – Three Masked Mistris, South Delhi
Life in corona. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Just a few cars are passing by, the faces of the drivers hidden behind masks. A Mother Dairy milk booth is lying half-shuttered. The yellow circles in front of the…
City Life – Leela Kanuga’s Mango Tree, Mayfair Gardens
Life with a tree. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In these days of lockdown, people can easily spend waking hours absorbed by the changing patterns of sunlight on their drawing room’s walls. But Leela Kanuga recently gazed upon…
City Life – A Bunch of Labourers, South Delhi
Stranded at site. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Attired in a lungi and banian, he could be any Delhi man at home. But Vinod Kumar is a security guard. It is morning and he is standing atop a…
City Life – Women at Work, South Delhi
Long walk to duty. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The late morning is still cool as if this were February, not April. The air is swelling with bird sounds. A koyal is crying out without a moment’s break….
City Life – Divya Babu’s WhatsApp Art Fest, Gurgaon
Art amid corona. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Anxious messages from worried parents and friends. Forwarded recommendations for a better body immunity. Links to so-called experts’ pieces of advice. Morbid jokes and e-mojies. And lots and lots of…
City Life – Security Guard Shailesh Singh’s “Sansar”, Gurgaon
Call of duty. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] Shobha Devi pleaded, cajoled and finally started crying, asking him not to leave the house. She also reminded her husband that “Modiji”, the prime minister himself, had asked the citizens not to step…
City Life – Scholar Abdul Sattar in Quarantine, Pahari Imli
His isolated life. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s nothing less than magic. So quiet, when it used to be so noisy. The Matia Mahal bazar in Old Delhi is usually always crowded. The streets perpetually milling with…
City Life – Vinti’s Upset Routine, Pataudi Chowk, Gurgaon
Life with corona. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Life has turned upside down for Vinti. Her three children are confined inside the home. So is her husband, auto rickshaw driver Raju. It’s late morning and this is feeling…
City Life – Fleeing from Nightmares, Jacobpura
On “unsolvable mind problems”. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] They can do nothing but wait. The “Baba” will return to his home here in Gurgaon’s Jacobpura—in the Greater Delhi Region—only in another hour or so. He is away…
City Life – Haji Fayazuddin’s Hand-Knitted Cap, Old Delhi
A souvenir of love and care. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He takes off the topi from his head, holds it carefully, the fingers moving slowly over the woolly texture as if they want to take in the…
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