Mission Delhi – Pramod Kumar Padhy, Sector 121, Noida
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The year is 1985. Place: Departure terminal, Rome airport. They knew they would not meet ever again. Moghul was flying to his home in Lahore, Pakistan, and Pramod Kumar Padhy was returning to…
Mission Delhi – Saurabh, Sohna Road
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There was no window in his single-bed ward at the Covid-designated ICU. But there was a large one in the adjacent ward, connected to his by an open door, and he could see…
Mission Delhi – Kamni, Hauz Khas Village
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Her husband makes yummy chicken curry. “But we haven’t had it for a long time,” says Kamni. Her reason is simple enough. “I no longer earn as much as I used to before…
Mission Delhi – Meera Sachdeva, Tagore Garden
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She has lived through the Second World War, and through many other profound historical shifts. Including the Partition. Actually, she came of age in what is now Pakistan. She is 93. “No (public)…
Mission Delhi – Durga Prasad, Dwarka
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The saddest thing to be seen on city walls are posters of the disappeared, calling for help to bring them home. Such notices have a standard format. Obviously, it gives the name of…
Mission Delhi – Sanjay Kumar, Central Delhi
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] On this muggy morning he is sitting on his haunches, across the street from a crowded central Delhi chai stall, silently watching the passersby go about their lives. He’s dressed in colors —…
Mission Delhi – Cheeku & Peeku, Deer Park
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s very tough to make out who is who. Cheeku and Peeku are twins. Barely a month old. They don’t speak much. They stay together. And they seem to have recovered from the…
Mission Delhi – Yeashu Yuvraj, Sector 51
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He would hardly be at home, and now he always is. But his music is going on in spite of that. In fact, you have to watch the acapella video he recently conceptualized…
Mission Delhi – Vijay Kumar, Central Delhi
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He doesn’t have a house, he says. But he does have possessions. “I carry them all the time with me,” says Vijay Kumar. This morning he is sitting on the steps of a…
Mission Delhi – Ved Kumari Pahwa, Sector 52
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The coronavirus pandemic has temporarily put on hold the hyperactive lives of many folks, including of Ved Kumari Pahwa. “I was feeling especially frustrated during the lockdown… I was, and am still, very…
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