City Life – The Love Life of Vidya Rao, Thumri Singer
The other woman in her life. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Vidya Rao, thumri singer, actor and part-time editor at Orient Longman, lives with Sufi in a sunny second-floor apartment, not far from Qutub Minar, in Mehrauli, south…
City Life – Admission Season, Delhi University
The rite of passage. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is the last hurdle before you become an adult. The admission process in Delhi University (DU) has its own rituals. It comes in summer. It demands long queues….
City Life – Unique Gym, Kucha Tarachand
Sweating for the body. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is a large room with no window. The air smells of salty sweat. The walls are painted orange and purple. Stairs go up to a smaller floor area…
Sujan Singh Park Diary – My Life with Khushwant Singh
Author Sadia Dehlvi on Delhi’s legendary writer. [Text by Sadia Dehlvi; pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] If you ask me about the women in author Khushwant Singh’s life, I would say I am the only one. That’s how special he…
City Commute – Business Class for Delhi Metro?
The mass in the mass rapid transit system. Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] While residents of east Delhi and neighbouring Ghaziabad happily boarded the Metro on the new line that opened in Anand Vihar on January 7th, 2010,…
City Living – So Many Delhis
It’s too varied. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi may be a city but it is as varied as any country. “We have many Delhis,” says Rakhshanda Jalil, the author of Invisible City. “You’ve these oasis of privileges…
City Life – William Dalrymple, Bestselling Author
Delhi’s most famous expat author. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] William Dalrymple has a big paunch. When The Delhi Walla met the Delhi-based British author at his Mira Singh farmhouse off the Mehrauli-Gurgaon highway, he was lounging on…
City Resident – Santosh Puri, Central News Agency
Her kingdom, her stories. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Her talk is hardly different than that of most grandmothers – all about ‘our days, your days’. “Call me narrow-minded, but today’s newspapers carry such vulgar ads,” says Santosh…
City Reporting – Delhi High Court Legalizes Gay Sex
First comments, first reactions. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] Shock. Disbelief. Euphoria. These were the first emotions experienced on 10.35am, July 2nd, 2009, in the jam-packed chamber one of Delhi High Court as a bench comprising Chief Justice…
City Life – A New Yorker in Mayur Vihar
An expat on the wrong side of the Yamuna. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Not all expats live in the steel bubbles of south Delhi. Meet Ms Rachel Tanzer. A New Yorker from 1993 to 2008, she is…
Recent Comments