City Walk – Red Fort’s Backside, Ring Road
A different perspective. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Great stories, they say, can also be told backwards, or sideways. Like the Red Fort. You must have seen the Mughal-era monument in all its red glory—the sandstone ramparts spread…
City Walk – Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Central Delhi
On emperor’s path. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It no longer needs to be known as Delhi’s Fleet Street, the London road famous for newspaper offices. At least some newspapers that were once located here have wholly or…
City Walk – Disappearing Bungalows, Green Park
Going with the wind. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A gate just big enough for a car to pass through. Beyond it, a small lawn on the side, not fanatically trimmed. And then the single-storey house, not modern-looking,…
City Walk – Former Stone Quarry, Gurgaon-Faridabad Road
Into the wild. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is a city walk that gives a sense of the land our city stands on. Let’s start with the mysterious wall crisscrossing through what looks like a jungle. It…
City Walk – Post-Lockdown Lodhi Road, Central Delhi
Notes from a pandemic-era stroll. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Two masked men are sitting on the dusty footpath, by the traffic light, with sketch pads on their laps. They are drawing Safdarjung’s Tomb, standing just across the…
City Walk – Florence Nightingale Lane, Green Park
Street of the nurse. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi has all sorts of lanes, all over the place. And then there’s Florence Nightingale Lane in Green Park—reminding us of the need for nurses in these grim days…
City Walk – Main Avenue, CR Park
The Bengal country. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The men look carefree, playing cards by the pavement. The vegetable seller is napping by his cart. A balloon hawker is slowly dragging his bicycle and the helium balloons, tied…
City Walk – Taak Sightings, Roshanpura, Gurgaon
Finding old souvenirs. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] If you look closely, you can find taaks in at least some houses of New Delhi villages—these disappearing arch-shaped niches built into walls. Traditionally meant as alcoves to keep sacred…
City Walk – Signature Chowk Bridge, Gurgaon
Beyond the practical utility. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Open sky. Nobody. Just you and your solitude, and a quiet walk mid-air. Footover bridges are among the most escapist places of a city, especially when suspended in places…
City Walk – Sounds of Alleys, Pahadi Imli
Going aural. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is no one to be seen. It is totally empty. And yet this is the same Old Delhi, that historic quarter, very picturesque — but usually so cramped and noisy….
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