People of Ghalib's world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A long beard. A pointed Turki topi. That’s Ghalib, the illustrated portrait that adorns the cover of his poetry books. Many of us might not have read the city’s great 19th century poet (1797-1869) due to unfamiliarity with classical Urdu and Persian but Ghalib’s spirit is so omnipresent in Delhi’s ambiance that he seems a part of our everyday life. But what about the people who influenced Ghalib’s life and times? Who were the early scholars who laid the foundation of his literary reputation? How did they look like? It’s very easy to find all these answers. You don’t even have to get your hands dirty in smelly dust-covered libraries. Just arrive at

Delhi by list. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] You may know what it’s like at Central Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar, so congested you can literally crash into somebody. The Delhi Walla almost stumbled over Muhammed Jaafar, a carpenter sitting around on the pavement with other daily wage badai and painters. Mr Jaafar is waiting to be hired by a building contractor--and is definitely prepared. With him is a tool bag so small that I can’t resist asking about the contents. “More than you think,” replies Mr Jaafar, who earns at least 700 rupees daily. He spreads out the tools for my inspection. Some look baffling, but he has just enough time to rattle off their names, mainly in Hindi. Here are a few: Vasula Randa Rande Chaursi Jambore I'm

Feminism in Islam. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “Ladies are not allowed inside.” This notice on a yellow board hangs outside the burial chamber of Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The shrine is one of the many dargahs in Delhi, a city also known as Bais khwaja ki chaukhat, or the threshold of the 22 Sufis. In August 2016, the Bombay high court put an end to exactly such exclusion at the Sufi shrine of Bombay’s Haji Ali Dargah. The verdict called for women to be “permitted to enter the sanctum sanctorum at par with men”. The court stayed the order for six weeks to allow the shrine authorities to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine still has

The hungry villagers. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If a First World foreigner is airlifted from her land straight into Hauz Khas Village, she will find it next to impossible to believe it is Delhi’s coolest hangout. The main lane is B-list; dust drifts constantly from the never-ending construction; skinny men in gold skeleton mask carry placards advertising the newest hotspots. But Delhiwallas look at the place with rose-tinted glasses. HKV currently abounds with the furious energy of a Special Economic Zone. A new month equals a new watering hole. From Mysore to Moscow, the menus in these restaurants, cafes and bars promise items from across the world, or at least have names that evoke the place of their origin.

You are remembered. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A nice bookstore is cherished not only for its collection of books and its charming owners, but also for its friendly shop assistants. Since the time it was founded by late KD Singh in 1970, The Book Shop in Delhi’s Jorbagh has been shaped by a number of much-loved people, including Mr Singh’s wife, Nini, and her business partner, the lovely Sonal Narain, and longtime doorman, the quietly helpful Sohan Singh. All three of them are seen daily in the shop. But a place is more than what it is at the moment. The Delhi Walla gives you a list of all the 20 shop assistants who manned The Book Shop--including in its

Dry, deciduous. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Though Delhiwallas wilt in the sweltering heat, summer is also the season when a great part of the city comes to life in a magically beautiful way. Walk along the wide roads of New Delhi and you will find a completely different world. The trees lining the avenues are dressed in all their finery. The branches of the anjan tree on the roundabout near the Udyog Bhawan Metro station are just beginning to sprout leaves. The mahua trees on Rajesh Pilot Marg still bear a tint of red newness. The stately semal in Jor Bagh Market, under which the security guard of a nearby ATM takes his tea breaks, is dense with leaves. Their soothing

A woman's friends. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The white-haired homeless woman is seen every morning by commuters in her usual place—a pavement close to Barakhamba Metro Station in Central Delhi’s Connaught Place. There she loudly sings sacred verses from Ram Charit Manas. The holy book is her most beloved possession. The Delhi Walla wrote about Ramrati Singh here in 2014 when she first appeared in what has become her usual spot for morning reading. Quite a few hurried passers-by stop to offer breakfast dishes to Ms Singh, though she herself does not ask for anything. On a recent morning, I stopped to make a note of offerings that Ms Singh received from commuters in the previous one hour. The short list

A Capital heritage. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Capital’s only Jewish cemetery is walking distance from the Khan Market Metro station. It is a serene corner of Delhi, and 42 Jews rest here in peace. This is where the man once described by The Times Of Israel newspaper as “India’s top-ranking Jew” is now buried. Lt Gen Jack Farj Rafael Jacob—who died on 13 January 2016 after a brief illness aged 92—was the hero of the Bangladesh war, the man who famously negotiated Pakistan’s surrender in 1971. Delhi is now left with only 10 Indian Jewish families, according to Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, the Maharashtra-born rabbi of Judah Hyam, the city’s only synagogue, which borders the cemetery. Seated one evening in

End of story. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Khan Market suffers a great loss. Raj Berry of flat no. 37 died in November 2015; she was 86. With her departure, the number of Khan Market’s residents falls further. Delhi’s most posh market used to be home to a large number of people who had settled here as refugees of the Indian partition in the 1940s. There were shops downstairs and houses upstairs. The market had 74 houses. Today, most of those flats have given way to cafes and restaurants. (The Delhi Walla wrote about Khan Market’s last surviving homes here). Khan Market is now left with only seven habited homes. Here’s the list of those flats and their dwellers. 1. Indira Gulati, flat

Native influences. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla knows of many Delhiwallas who first discovered the beauties of their city through William Dalrymple's travel book City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. There are also a few Delhiwallas who suffer from the idea of William Dalrymple as a Delhi author. After all, Mr Dalrymple is a foreign import from the land of our former colonisers. Irrespective of your private opinions about the Scottish author--and let them be private for he, along with author Namita Gokhale, handpick authors for the prestigious Jaipur Literary Festival--the truth is that Djinns is one of the most important Delhi books. I present you a list of all the Indian authors, and their books, whom