City Life – Lakshman Rekha, Gurgaon
Her line of “prudence.” [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] In life, each one is obliged to navigate through a maze of liberties and restraints. “One learns to strike a balance between the things one can do and the…
City Life – Ms Rani & Ms Chandra, Hazrat Nizamuddin East
Two friends. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Ms Rani’s feelings seem to be as strong as anybody’s but she has a quietness about her. Ms Chandra (left) is showing more eagerness in everything, her nature being gregarious. They…
City Life – Tikona Park, Near Oberoi Hotel Flyover
Changing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The concrete island beside the traffic light has been dug up, and the raw earth is now full of new trees, so young that their trunks look like mere stalks. Maybe,…
City Obituary – Shabana Banu, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
A life, passed. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] No sign of her things—neither of her bundle, that served as a pillow at night, nor of her hand fan. She had been living on this spot of the pavement…
City Life – Handwritten Sentiments, Around Town
Or lives in chits and scraps. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] “If we lose this, we lose everything”— and so concludes the romantic note, handwritten by a person to their beloved at the back of a Khan Market…
City Life – Urmila & Jeetu, Patel Nagar
Portrait of a marriage. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s noon, and they are directly exposed to the heatwave. She is standing barefoot on a mound of dug-up earth. He is in the ditch below. They are talking…
City Life – Sabeena & Afzal, Sarai Kale Khan
Love story. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Both of them are fond of chai. And when they are having chai together, they drink it from the same glass. “We feel good this way,” he says. “Because we like…
City Life – Family Closet, Sadar Bazar
A souvenir of memories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Loved ones go, the objects of their daily life stay. And some trace of the departed, tidbit of a particular memory perhaps, is evoked by those objects. Like in…
City Life – Three Labourers, Pragati Maidan
Builders of a new city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The air is laden with dust. The temperature is so high that the body seems to be on a slow roast. In such a setting, a new world…
City Life – Handmade Helmets, Bazar Sirki Walan
Their protective headgear. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] They say the world is the size of each man’s head. For daily-wage labourers in Old Delhi’s Bazar Sirki Walan, it might be truer of their headgear. Almost every man…
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