Life in Delhi’s prettiest neighbourhood. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] My house looks to the Hauz Khas monument. This morning I got to know a family that lives inside that monument. I met Pappu and Usha on the…
Hips and hops. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Twisting the hip. Spinning on the floor. Standing on the head. Freezing into a pose. Legs leaping up. Suddenly, the entire body falling flat with a thud. “Yo, yo.” One…
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] His eyebrows are threaded and his nails are manicured. He is carrying a large brown handbag. “I’m not an Indian,” A. Husain says, dressed in…
The traditional pastime. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] They fly away but always come back. Mateen Qureshi, 26, the owner of Shireen Bhawan sweetshop in Matia Mahal bazaar, has the largest collection of pigeons in Old Delhi. The…
Little delights. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] The New York Times, the world’s best newspaper, reads The Delhi Walla. On August 3, 2011, Diner’s Journal, a section in the newspaper’s website, published an article called What We’re Reading, a collection of…
The beautiful Delhi instant. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One evening The Delhi Walla was in Jama Masjid, the grand mosque that Mughal emperor Shahjahan built in 1628. The gigantic courtyard was taken over by hundreds of men,…
Life in Delhi’s prettiest neighbourhood. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The terrace of my apartment looks to the ruins of Hauz Khas, which were originally built as a mosque and madarsa by emperor Feroze Shah Tughlaq in 14th…
It goes online. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Until August 2011, anyone with the ambition of understanding Jawaharlal Nehru had to fly to Delhi and spend hours at the members-only library in Teen Murti Bhavan, Nehru’s British-built residence…
A vanishing world. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One humid afternoon The Delhi Walla knocked at the door of thumri singer Vidya Rao. In her 50s, Ms Rao shares her second-floor apartment in Mehrauli, south Delhi, with her…
Life in Delhi’s prettiest neighbourhood. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla lives in Hauz Khas Village. The one-room apartment has a window that looks to graceful ruins and a placid lake. The view ahead is of…
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