City Walk – Towards Flaubert’s Tomb, Cimetière Monumental de Rouen
Visiting a writer’s grave. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] So harmonious, these living arrangements of the dead. The Delhi Walla is at the Monumental Cemetery in Rouen, the home of Gustave Flaubert, the creator of Madame Bovary. In…
City Walk – Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi
Touched by moonlight. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is pleasant to be in Chandni Chowk, to sweep the eyes 360 degrees in this in-your-face Secular India theme park—temples, mosques, church and gurdwara. To see masked Jains, kirpan-wielding…
City Walk – From ITO to Red Fort, Central Delhi
The path less traveled. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Trips to Jama Masjid will soon become easier. The trial run of the eagerly awaited and much postponed Heritage Line of the Delhi Metro will begin in August 2016,…
City Walk – Playing Footsie at Sunday Book Bazaar, Daryaganj
Leaping past the secondhands. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It’s not Chandni Chowk. Not Mehrauli Archaeological Complex. No, not even Lodhi Gardens. It’s the Sunday Book Bazaar in Daryaganj. This mile-long pavement market for secondhand books is the…
City Walk – Nicholson Cemetery, Near Kashmere Gate
Strolling among the forgotten. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The track fades into thorny vines. It re-emerges a few steps later and pass by a small grave. The inscription is not immediately discernible. Some of the engraved alphabets…
City Walk – Ghalib Street, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
Poet’s highway. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] While the poet has been dead for over a century, his poetic landscape lives on in the iambic pentameter of the crowds on Ghalib Street. Here human rhythms beat out a…
City Walk – Aurangzeb Road, Central Delhi
The last days of the avenue. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Speeding cars are making gentle breezy sounds. Somewhere a peacock is crying out. While the soft sun of the August evening is filling Aurangzeb Road with golden…
City Walk – Galli Chooriwallan, Near Chawri Bazaar
It’s a dream. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There is an extraordinary street in Old Delhi. Its entrance offers a most dream-like prospect. You must step into Galli Chooriwallan from Chawri Bazaar. The turning transports the stroller into…
City Walk – Chelmsford Road, Central Delhi
Stretch of serenity. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] “… The 20 kiloton warhead, which had exploded 1,600 ft above Chelmsford Road, midway between Connaught Place and New Delhi railway station, had demolished everything. Temperatures at the blast areas…
City Walk – Bungalow No. 12 to 22, Hazrat Nizamuddin East
Lined with vanishing houses. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The residences are arranged along a tree-lined semicircle. The community garden permits entry only to the area’s residents. This section of the upscale Hazrat Nizamuddin East – from bungalow…
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