Photo Essay - Sufi's World, Mehrauli

Photo Essay – Sufi’s World, Mehrauli

Meow. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sufi lives in a monument-facing apartment in South Delhi’s Mehrauli. She shares it with Vidya Rao who is a human. Sufi is very old now. She spends her days reading books about…

Photo Essay - Sakina Mehta's Material Memories of Artist Tyeb Mehta, Greater Kailash-I

Photo Essay – Sakina Mehta’s Material Memories of Artist Tyeb Mehta, Greater Kailash-I

A wife’s legacy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The house is like a museum celebrating the life of Tyeb Mehta, one of contemporary India’s greatest painters. One afternoon The Delhi Walla entered the home of Sakina Mehta, the…

Photo Essay – The Empty Banquet Hall, Pahari Bhojla

Photo Essay – The Empty Banquet Hall, Pahari Bhojla

Scenes of silence. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The blue-robed chairs are neatly arranged around tables that are covered with white clothes. This must be the setting for a formal sit-down dinner but there is no one. One…

Photo Essay - Chasing a Beautiful Woman, Khan Market Bookstores

Photo Essay – Chasing a Beautiful Woman, Khan Market Bookstores

A bookish excursion. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She was in a white top and she looked very happy. One evening The Delhi Walla saw a beautiful curly-haired woman entering Faqir Chand & Sons bookstore on Khan Market’s…

Photo Essay - La Hune Bookstore's Second Life, Paris

Photo Essay – La Hune Bookstore’s Second Life, Paris

A great landmark’s afterlife. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once upon a time one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world was in the most beautiful part of beautiful Paris. La Hune, next to the historic Saint-Germain-des-Prés…

Photo Essay - Bahrisons Booksellers After Balraj Bahri's Passing Away, Khan Market

Photo Essay – Bahrisons Booksellers After Balraj Bahri’s Passing Away, Khan Market

Life of a bookshop. [photos by Florian Morin; text by Mayank Austen Soofi] February 26, 2016: Balraj Bahri Malhotra, the 87-year-old founder of Delhi’s iconic Bahrisons Booksellers bookstore in Khan Market, passes away. (The Delhi Walla wrote his obituary here.)…

City Notice - Somewhere in Delhi, An Exhibition in Venice

City Notice – Somewhere in Delhi, An Exhibition in Venice

[By Mayank Austen Soofi] Can you touch a Facebook post? Yes, you can. Friends, the first batch of my select Facebook posts–both photographs and texts–have been adapted by Venice-based designer Anna Gerotto into the soft texture of a hand-woven muslin…

Photo Essay - The Chitli Qabar Urban Art Installation, Old Delhi

Photo Essay – The Chitli Qabar Urban Art Installation, Old Delhi

A temporary art exhibit. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Old Quarter of Delhi is known for many wonders. The art of spitting noisily has been cultivated to a high form here. Many tourists, of course, come to…

Photo Essay - Shakespeare's World, Around Delhi

Photo Essay – Shakespeare’s World, Around Delhi

Living with the Bard. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Disclaimer: This article has stolen many phrases from the complete works of a writer who had a history of taking inspiration from people’s lives. In Sufism, the death anniversary…

Photo Essay – DL Number Plate, Around Town

Photo Essay – DL Number Plate, Around Town

The symbol of Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The DL number plates given to cars, auto rickshaws and bikes registered in Delhi frame the view of the city’s roads and streets. These two alphabets arranged together speak…