City Library – Book Lover’s Diary, Around Town Library Life by The Delhi Walla - February 10, 20252 The year was 1983. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A blue book is lying forlorn on the dusty floor. Here in a Delhi shop for used books. Turns out the book is not really a book. It is somebody’s private diary, belonging to the year 1983. Every page is scribbled over in blue ink. A more detailed investigation reveals it to be a thing even more extraordinary. It is a booklover’s diary, jotted with hundreds of book titles; some of the titles are accompanied with the scribbler’s brief opinions about the books. The diary does bear the person’s name but no point in sharing it publicly. Perhaps the diarist died, and the descendants accidentally gave away the handwritten diary while disposing what must have
City Library – Russian House, Feroze Shah Road Hangouts Library by The Delhi Walla - November 25, 20240 Delhi's most enigmatic library. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here pin-drop silence marinates amidst thousands of books. The library at Russian House, a Russian government enterprise, is in Delhi’s heart, but the third-floor windows show nothing of the city, except for the sky, and the treetops of Feroze Shah Road. Most books are in Russian, and almost all are beautifully produced hardbacks. The mere act of holding a random volume is like drifting closer to an otherwise remote world. This is easy to explain. The icy frozen Russia is geographically closer to Delhi than Western Europe, but London-Paris appear more accessible to us than Moscow-Saint Petersburg. Maybe because the former cities are more thoroughly enmeshed into our popular culture. Whatever,
City Library – Author Qurratulain Hyder Archives, Jamia Millia Islamia University Library by The Delhi Walla - July 17, 20240 A room of her own. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Aakh ki thandak—cooling comfort to the eye. This is the meaning of her Arabic name, though friends called her Ainee Apa. Qurratulain Hyder herself also preferred this nickname. Her Anna Karenina has ‘Ainee’ on the opening page. All the books she owned are scrawled with it. (Except for Nehru’s A Bunch of Old Letters —it has only Jawaharlal Nehru’s autograph.) Among the greatest writers in the subcontinent, the material remains Qurratulain Hyder left behind after her death in 2007 are lying preserved in Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University. Her presence in the gallery is so palpable you half-expect the novelist to tap on your shoulder. Qurratulain Hyder’s vast collection of books
City Library – Raghu Rai’s Collection of Books, Mehrauli Library by The Delhi Walla - November 25, 20230 Photographer's company. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The first impulse is to click his gaze, zoom up the photo on the screen and study it in detail. These eyes of Raghu Rai have not only recorded some of contemporary India’s most historic moments, but have also managed to penetrate into the very essence of those datelines. Such as the Bangladesh War, India Gandhi’s assassination, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Among many memorable images, this “trained civil engineer” has given the world iconic portraits of Mother Teresa, as well as some of the most moody images of Delhi— recall that black and white photo of a man diving into the deep well of the medieval Agrasen ki Baoli, against a backdrop of
City Library – Premchand’s Archives, Premchand Archives & Literary Center Library by The Delhi Walla - November 17, 20220 Author's home. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dainty and dense, and tidy enough to be decipherable. This is his hastlipi (handwriting) in Hindi. And his likhai (handwriting) in Urdu, ditto. The writing of Premchand (1880-1936) is a sangam (confluence) of these two languages of his homeland, UP. Naturally, the best way to feel close to the writer is to be intimate with his 300 afsane (short stories), 14 upanyas (novels), and hundreds of tanqeedi mazameen (literary criticisms), nibandh (essays), tehreerien (speeches) and khutut (letters). The next best way is to head to Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia. The university harbours an abhilekhagar (archives) of Premchand’s extensive writings in Hindi and Urdu, as well as a gosha (collection) of critical writings on his entire
City Library – Ashis Nandy’s and Uma Nandy’s Library, Hazrat Nizamuddin East Library by The Delhi Walla - April 9, 20220 Couple's collection. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One day, some years ago, an academic from abroad entered their house. He was courteously told to sit. He replied, “But where?” The books are on the sofa, and on the chairs. They claim the dining table, and also the double bed in the guest room. This is sociologist Ashis Nandy’s home. He shares the second-floor apartment in Hazrat Nizamuddin East with wife, Uma. This evening the couple are in their bedroom. She is with the Bengali translation of Ajeet Caur’s memoir Khanabadosh; he is with Joanna Bourke’s An Intimate History of Killing. “I have a huge collection of books on all kinds of violence,” he remarks. “For 15 years I have been working off-and-on
City Library – American Center Library, Kasturba Gandhi Marg Library by The Delhi Walla - December 24, 20210 Sounds from silences. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If you listen, the steady hum of a machine can be heard. Maybe it’s the air conditioner. Or rather a radiator, for this is the cold season. The sound is somewhat comforting, as any mild white noise would be. Occasionally, the air is pierced by muffled whispers, and if a person decides to get up from their seat, you will hear the sound of their clothes brushing against the chair as noisily as chips crackling inside one’s own mouth. The American Library, in central Delhi’s Connaught Place, is like a small vessel for sounds and silences of great delicacy. These acoustic figments seem so fragile that if the door was suddenly to be
City Library – Diplomat Maharajakrishna Rasgotra’s Books, Sapru House Library by The Delhi Walla - December 22, 2021December 22, 20211 Diplomat's poetic side. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you what you are.” This maxim by French epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin works equally well if “eat” is replaced with “read”. That certainly is a singularly effective way of developing deep intimacies with Maharajakrishna Rasgotra, even if you have never met the erudite man. A retired diplomat in his late 90s, he recently donated his entire collection of books to what is probably Delhi’s best public library that barely anybody visits. This afternoon, the first floor of the sprawling library in central Delhi’s Sapru House is empty. Books and journals are bound in various shades of brown, except for the diplomat’s collection, arranged reverently in
City Library – 3L Library, Defence Colony Library by The Delhi Walla - December 15, 2021December 15, 20210 An old-world lending library. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One doesn’t always want to stumble upon the past. After all, there is so much contemporary stuff to handle. But Delhi is littered with souvenirs from yesterday. And this miniature time capsule in south Delhi’s Defence Colony market is too delightful to be ignored. To a certain generation that came of age in the 1960s and 70s, this corner place might bring many emotions. During those times, many neighbourhoods in the city would have at least one lending library from where to borrow a novel at a very affordable rate. Today, such libraries have become history. But 3L Library (full name: Love, Laugh and Learn) is trudging along. Stepping into it is
City Library – Rakhshanda Jalil’s Mills & Boon Collection, Central Delhi Library by The Delhi Walla - August 16, 20210 Part of her past. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] How could any man be so mean? Could Kate really bear Adam long enough to discover the gentleness he apparently possessed? More urgently, did Rakhshanda Jalil really care? Turns out the highbrow Ms Jalil devoured Adam’s Law with unadulterated pleasure. Now, decades later, the acclaimed author of 30 books outs herself as a devotee of Mills & Boon paperbacks. “Millsies were my escape into romance, travel, and new places,” Ms Jalil, 58, gushes in a voice not at all hoarse with passion, totally unlike the slushy Mills & Boon heroines. Here she pauses, and murmurs more softly—“I haven’t read a Millsie for 30 years.” This afternoon the writing room in her central Delhi home