Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Rajeev Anil Roark, Perch, Khan Market

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Rajeev Anil Roark, Perch, Khan Market

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His life is like an unmentionable dream. During the day, he makes coffee; at night, he makes poems. His necessary companions: Marlboro and Remington. And once a woman posed…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Recollections, Venice's Ancient Jewish Cemetery

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Recollections, Venice’s Ancient Jewish Cemetery

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The tombs lay scattered across the grassy ground. Many of them were inscribed in Hebrew. A few showed the shield of David. A very few had small stones placed…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Mantra Mukim, Kamla Nagar

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Mantra Mukim, Kamla Nagar

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The one-room apartment is filled with books on poetry. There are paperbacks under the bed, too. The ashtray lies atop Jorges Luis Borges’s Poems of the Night. The writing…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Living Poets Society, Ghalib Academy

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Living Poets Society, Ghalib Academy

The world of Urdu poetry. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Three men sat in the front row. The rest of the house was deserted; the rows of chairs looked like empty bookshelves. The three seemed unperturbed. Verse has…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Remembering Urdu Poet Musheer Jhinjhanvi, Ghalib Academy

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Remembering Urdu Poet Musheer Jhinjhanvi, Ghalib Academy

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Urdu poet Iffat Zarrin arrived at Ghalib Academy with her two brothers, Naseer ul Hasan and Muneer ul Hasan. They had driven together from their respective houses in Old…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ram Chander Bhakt, Mathura Road

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ram Chander Bhakt, Mathura Road

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla arranged to meet Hindi poet Ram Chander Bhakt on Mathura Road in Central Delhi. Mr Bhakt makes his living as an auto-rickshaw driver. I…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Elizabeth Bishop, Fact & Fiction Booksellers

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Elizabeth Bishop, Fact & Fiction Booksellers

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet American poet Elizabeth Bishop at the Fact & Fiction Booksellers in South Delhi’s Basant Lok Market. The city’s most eclectic bookshop, Fact &…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Pagalkavi, Hari Nagar

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Pagalkavi, Hari Nagar

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One raining afternoon The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Pagalkavi at his apartment near Tanki Walla Park in West Delhi’s Hari Nagar. “I live with my parents and…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ishan Marvel & Aleksandr Pushkin, Mandi House

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ishan Marvel & Aleksandr Pushkin, Mandi House

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla met poet Ishan Marvel outside Regal Cinema in early 2015. That evening he had shared his poem ‘My City is…’ with us. I meet Mr Marvel…

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ishan Marvel, Opposite Regal Cinema

Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Ishan Marvel, Opposite Regal Cinema

Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Ishan Marvel in the park opposite Regal Cinema in Connaught Place. In his 20s, Mr Marvel is presently in a state of…