City Style – The Imperial Woman in White, Aurobindo Marg Style by The Delhi Walla - November 1, 2016November 1, 20161 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She looked extraordinary. The Delhi Walla saw this woman one rush hour morning at a bus stop in Aurobindo Marg. She was in a white sari; it was embroidered with white flower patterns. Her hair too was white. A gold bracelet was on her right arm; a black bag on her left shoulder. She had brown sandals. Her face had deep lines. Her back was straight. There was no one dressed like her. She stood out like an imperial monument in a concrete junkyard. After all, this is a city of negatives. Smog. Traffic jams. Road rage. Tyranny of the VIPs. Harassment of women. Etcetera. A Delhiwalla often becomes a caricature of
City Style – A Woman from Kashmir, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti Style by The Delhi Walla - May 20, 2016May 20, 20162 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She looked like the cover picture of a yellowing National Geographic magazine. One evening The Delhi Walla saw a woman in an eatery in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. She was seated with her companions-one man, one woman. Despite the heat, her head was covered with a shawl that fell down gently over her back. Her long blue top had yellow and purple flowers. Her many-colored necklace was almost as large as her face. She looked a little shy. There was no one dressed like her. The woman said she was from Kashmir. Some time later, her woman companion stood up and started to fuss around her. The friend lifted her shawl and
City Style – A Conference of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s Saris, India International Center Style by The Delhi Walla - April 21, 2016April 21, 20161 The handwoven world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There, blue with red border. Here, green edged with orange. And now walks in a landscape patterned with paisley. One evening The Delhi Walla enters a room peopled with handloom saris. These saris are at the India International Center to celebrate Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, the woman remembered for reviving India’s traditional weaving styles. The saris are wrapped around the graceful personas of Kamaladevi devotees. The venue is at the second floor and each time the elevator doors open, there is yet another sari to gaze at. However, there is one short dress that is standing out due to its completely different character (see photo 15 below). It is seated beside a blue sari. This short
City Style – Rakhshanda Jalil’s Ghararas, South Delhi Style by The Delhi Walla - December 12, 2015December 12, 20155 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Strange outfit this. It’s neither a skirt, nor a gown. It’s definitely not a sari. It’s also not a pajama. What is it? “It is gharara,” says author Rakhshanda Jalil, pronouncing the ‘gh’ in a special deep-throat voice. The Delhi Walla is at Ms Jalil’s home in south Delhi. Her most precious wardrobe is a treasure-house of about two dozen ghararas. Most have come down to her from her mother and mother’s mother; a few are even older. Indeed, Ms Jalil has a fascination for souvenirs of the past. One of her many books is the beautifully titled Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of Delhi. These ghararas, too, are fast becoming invisible. It will be
City Style – The Man with the Peacock Feather, Urdu Bazaar Style by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 2015November 20, 20150 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His eyes were underlined strongly with black kaajal. His get-up included a white skullcap, and a necklace of green plastic beads. He had one leg; one of his two crutches was luxuriously decorated with a real peacock feather. It also had a purple plastic flower, with green plastic leaves. There was some purple on his white shore, too. There was no one dressed like him. The Delhi Walla saw this stylish man one morning in the Walled City’s Urdu Bazaar. He was standing still, quietly watching the pedestrians on the road. There was a huge red bag on his back. The man’s wiry, black beard was neatly trimmed. A scarf
City Style – The Message of the Dresses, India Fashion Week, Okhla Style by The Delhi Walla - October 11, 2015October 11, 20153 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] All of these costumed people are looking awe-inspiring. Some look like the photo spreads of Vogue Paris. The Delhi Walla is in the National Small Industries Corporation Grounds in South Delhi’s Okhla. It’s the penultimate day of the India Fashion Week. All around: sandals, pendants, haircuts. See that woman in white collars, that man in blue trousers. Some men here are so intensely feminine; some women so delicately masculine. The dresses here give the impression of a higher aim. Every pristine pattern of an embroidery work, every unexpected color on a sleeve calls out to the possibilities of beauty in our lives. The new dresses give hope that there is perhaps a
City Style – People Watching, India Fashion Week, Okhla Style by The Delhi Walla - October 7, 2015October 7, 20151 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Who are these people? How do they manage to look so cool in these clothes when we know we would look like clowns in them? The Delhi Walla went to the National Small Industries Corporation Grounds in South Delhi’s Okhla to watch the capital’s other-worldly people trooping in to attend the first day of the India Fashion Week. There was a woman with flowers on her sandals. Another came in a dress that appeared to have come straight out of a paper-shredder. She looked stunning in it. Designer and photographer Akanksha Sharma was seen whispering to novelist Jeet Thayil. Designer Mayank Mansingh Kaul was also sighted among many others of his
City Style – A Man in Asymmetrical Colours, Subway Restaurant, Khan Market Style by The Delhi Walla - September 24, 2015September 24, 20155 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His T-shirt is pink. His shorts are white. His hair are tied into two ponytails. Oh my God, his socks. One is pink. The other is green. There is no one dressed like him. The Delhi Walla sees this extraordinary man one evening inside a Subway sandwich outlet in Khan Market. He seems as much at home in his unusual dress as the woman on the next table in her everywoman salwar suit. Unlike his neighbor, the man defies accepted wisdom—and not only in his choice of socks. His shoes, too, are of different colours--- red and black. Also, the shoelaces: pink and white. Just as you start to shove the
City Style – A Slender Woman in White, Harish Chander Mathur Lane Style by The Delhi Walla - October 24, 2014June 19, 20154 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She is wearing a cotton silk white vintage dress with black piping stripes and pearl buttons. Her nose ring is barely perceptible. The Delhi Walla meets this slender woman one warm evening on Central Delhi’s Harish Chander Mathur Lane. The woman says her dog died. She went to Goa to recover and returned only a day or two ago. “I did paragliding and went fishing with a fisherman,” she says. “Had lots of fresh juices and also read some (Arthur) Schopenhauer on the beach.” The woman’s left arm shows a tattoo – Vesta dans mon coeur. “It means ‘Vesta in my heart’ in French,” she says. “Vesta is my dog’s name.”
City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Regal Cinema Building Style by The Delhi Walla - July 24, 20142 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla finds this man behind the Regal Cinema Building in Connaught Place. He is wearing a pink lace golden-colored turban and a green dhoti. His accessories include a pink scarf, a pink plastic flower, a green balloon, a red wrist band, a single set of white and orange earrings, a bunch of green peacock feathers, and a number of beaded necklaces and good-luck amulets. And he is looking so confident. No one can be as heroically slapdash as this man. He too is our icon. Nonsense verse 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.