City Legend – Meraj Ahmed Nizami, Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
Delhi’s greatest qawwal. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This winter marks the fifth death anniversary of Meraj Ahmed Nizami, the great qawwal of the sufi shrine of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The news of Meraj’s passing had gone…
City Culture – Artful Pavement, IFFCO Chowk
A roadside with stories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sidewalk is as wide as a bazaar lane and a paved one at that. But it’s stinking of urine. And yet you ought to come here. Because this…
City Culture – The Art of Seat Weaving, Near Tolstoy’s Statue
Handmade chairs. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Do you know who has made the seat of the chair on which you are sitting? A man or a woman, certainly, but this might be true only up to a…
City Culture – Delhi’s Table Manners, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
Dining rituals. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The delicious food was being served free to passers-by in honor of goddess Mata Rani. The road-side bhandara counter had large cauldrons filled with aloo subzi and deep-fried pooris. One afternoon…
City Culture – Khushwant Singh’s Drawing Room Secrets, Sujan Singh Park
Daughter Mala Dayal breaks her silence. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Please Do Not Ring The Bell Unless You Are Expected – This is the notice that continues to greet the visitors outside author Khushwant Singh’s home although…
City Notice – Three Great Delhi Chroniclers to Come Together, Oxford Bookstore
RV Smith, Sadia Dehlvi and Rakhshanda Jalil. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is to be a rare evening. Three great living chroniclers of Delhi will come together on stage to chat about their lives in the capital….
City Life – Delhi Lovers, Lodhi Gardens
The geography of love. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some say that love’s a little boy. Some say it’s a bird. Some say it makes the world go round — so mused a long dead poet. In Delhi,…
City Culture – De Bhasar, British Council
The philosophy of nonsense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A rainbow. The Delhi Walla saw this poster on the high-security wall of the British Council on Kasturba Gandhi Marg. It showed the slogan ‘Love is great’. This is…
City Culture – Pissing Men, India Gate & Elsewhere
Urination is prohibited. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The two men were urinating against the monumental backdrop of India Gate. One of them, a photographer who refused to give his name, was defiant: “I take pictures of tourists….
Hidden in Plain Sight – Arundhati Roy on Caste & The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
An interview with the author-essayist. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] “Arundhati (Roy) is my friend. She’s a good writer. But I don’t take her comments seriously. She once described the Naxalites as ‘Gandhians with Guns’. Let’s see if she’ll change…
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