The winter season delicacy. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] His uplifting smile is the rich icing to the sweet lightness of his daulat ki chaat. Namaste winter, and salaam to the season’s first sighting of Old Delhi’s cold…
That opening in the room. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] With an upsurge in extreme weather conditions, along with pollution, smog and dengue mosquitoes, most of us are obliged to keep our household windows curtained and shut. The…
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is late afternoon. He steps to the side of the busy street holding a glass of chai, sitting down on the low boundary wall…
The Morena affair. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Murano in Italy is famous for its glass work. Morena in India is famous for its gajak work. Time to return to a sweet indulgence of the year past. Head…
Sufi shrine, now and then. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The long, curving crack on the discoloured wall evoked the course of a river. A tiny uneven gap through the same wall disconcertingly showed the flower shop on…
The street of wooden cot. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dictionary describes it as “any place raised above the ground for sitting, reclining, or sleeping.” Basically a wooden cot, it gives its name to an Old Delhi street….
Prose and poem on the Delhi smog. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The mourning (sorry, morning!) sky is sandstorm yellow, so is the earth and everything between the sky and earth, though no storm is brewing. The distant…
So Stein. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Head to the tranquil atrium at the India Habitat Centre (IHC). Enter through gate 2. Make sure you reach around 10.15am, when the morning shift staffers are sprucing up the courtyard…
The street of the tailor’s needle. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Winter in, blue out. Neela aasman kho gaya—the blue sky is lost. Soon the air above Delhi will be all grey, dusty, smoggy, cold. Indeed, in our…
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This sight, so rare. A citizen not holding the customary mobile, but a book. Monu is reading, while awaiting his rickshaw’s next customer. So it…
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