Delhi Archives - City Lingo, Around Town

Delhi Archives – City Lingo, Around Town

[Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] News flash on a website: 2G:BJP demands probe against PM, PC. The meaning of the cuss word Chutium Sulphate, explained in an online dictionary: “Complete moron, as in, That chutium sulphate can’t…

City Archives - Barsatis, Around Town

City Archives – Barsatis, Around Town

[Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] It’s vanishing. The barsati. The small room at the top of the house where the family could enjoy the cool breeze during the monsoon. A unique Delhi phenomenon. The city’s real estate…

City Archives – Delhi Belly, Around Town

City Archives – Delhi Belly, Around Town

[Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] Messy, smelly and non-stop, Jane Austen would have described it as a continual state of inelegance. Delhi’s biggest embarrassment, it is also the title of a Bollywood film. The phrase Delhi Belly,…

City Archives – Delhi Forests, Around Town

City Archives – Delhi Forests, Around Town

[Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] Secretive and silent. Intertwined trees, twisted trunks, thorny twigs, rocky slopes, and clumps of grass. The nearest McDonald’s is two miles away. The Delhi Walla is on Delhi’s Central Ridge, a forest…

City Archives – Rajiv Gandhi Setu, Ring Road

City Archives – Rajiv Gandhi Setu, Ring Road

[Digging out old stories from The Delhi Walla] A smoggy traffic square that was once dreaded by commuters for its long jams has become an unlikely urban haven. On one grassy slope, a group of women is playing kabaddi. On…