The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A South Delhi expat makes a point.[Text by Anonymous; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]I loved the Delhi Walla’s The Cost of Living piece which had haunting images of a woman beggar and her infant daughter; I wished it could have been longer. In the article, The Delhi Walla mentions the millionaires but does not pass judgment on them (except tacitly). Instead, the expats come in for their usual lashing. He observes, “At least the expats have their dollars, euros and return tickets.”Who are these ‘expats’? They are not a homogenous

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Poor people and the price of water.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]A 2007 survey had revealed that Delhi had the most millionaires in India - 1.38 lakh (138,000) households earning Rs 10 lakh (1 million) or more annually. That same year Khan Market was declared the world’s 16th most expensive retail high street. Two years later in 2009, during the countdown to the national elections, 33 millionaires vied to enter the parliament through Delhi’s constituencies. A few months later an annual global survey declared the Capital the most expensive

He needs a mate. [Text and picture by Vasantha Angamuthu] We named our pug Mr Jones because I had in mind a well-behaved portly little companion who would frolic lovingly when guests came and who would bring me the papers and slippers in the evening. Mr Jones, I thought, was a name that suggested good manners, good cheer and good breeding. These days we’re calling him Engelbert Humperdinck, Humper, Mr Tom Jones (remember the pelvic thrust) and Free Willy. You see Mr Jones has just matured into a young adult and, like male young adults the world over, has discovered sex. His tragedy is that there is no Mrs Jones around for him to indulge his new habit so all soft furnishings in my

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Delhi’s first LGBT friendly salon.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]Dressing up as a drag queen becomes a tad easier and pricier in the Capital. In July, 2009, the city got its first openly LGBT-friendly unisex salon in Hauz Khas Market. “We charge Rs 3,000 for dolling up a man,” says Mr Sameer Mehta, the proprietor of NYC who runs the salon with his partner Mr Mike. “We opened around seven months ago but ‘came out’ as soon as the Delhi High Court scrapped Section 377,” says Mr Mehta. To

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Beauty as seen in a sufi shrine.[Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi]One humid Saturday afternoon I was at the dargah of sufi saint Sarmad Shahid. It is in Old Delhi, just outside Jama Masjid’s gate no. 3. The red-walled shrine was empty, save a few pilgrims. There was a man, with a beard and a skull cap, praying in front of Sarmad's tomb. Just then a young woman appeared in a sari and stood by his side. With the sindoor spread length-wise on the parting of her hair,

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.A must-visit for book lovers.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]If there were no Indian Partition, there would have been no Kuldeep Booksellers. Started by the son of a Partition refugee from what is now Pakistan, this hole-in-a-wall, in this Daryaganj backlane, could shame South Delhi’s most hyped bookstores. Get here quickly before anyone else takes away this entire stack of first edition Churchills, or that first edition of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, or this rare set of hardbound Lincoln books, or this pile of automobile

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.One afternoon in Delhi.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]It was over in half an hour. In the late afternoon of July 23rd, 2009, clouds suddenly gathered over the Delhi sky, a dust storm followed, trees fell and then a furious downpour drenched almost the entire city, which had been reeling under a dry spell due to a disappointing monsoon season.Ms Marina Bang, a South African national who spends her hours writing a book at her rented bungalow in Jor Bagh, was pleasantly surprised. She and her two friends immediately

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The city down the decades.[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi]The Delhi Walla discovered these grainy images in the archives of LIFE magazine. Nothing is known about the years when these pictures were taken. But the life seen in these frames are proof enough that much has changed in this city down the decades. Once when the 2 Up Kalka Mail would steam into Delhi through the old Yamuna bridge, your grandfather would turn right and see the grand Metcalfe House. Now, when the electricity-powered superfast Kalka Shatabdi Express zooms into the

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.Weekend getaway in Rajasthan.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]In July, 2009, an online poll by Travel+Leisure magazine voted Udaipur, a Rajasthani lake town about a night’s train journey away from Delhi, as the “world’s best city for travellers.” Now, now, the credibility of online polls must always be taken with a barrel of salt. But The Delhi Walla, who spent a June weekend in Udaipur, could understand the sincerity of that poll. Yes, the city is pretty. Ditto, its people. But perhaps what makes Udaipur ‘best’, and entertaining, is

The Delhi walla's pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls - Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIESContact mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com for ad enquiries.The Metro would change Delhi's face after a few more years - and accidents.[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]A person does not belong to a place until he has someone dead under the ground. Does that apply to Delhi Metro, too? On the Sunday morning of July 12th, 2009, a pillar on the partially constructed Metro bridge in the tony GK-I suddenly collapsed killing six.This was not the first tragedy in the short history of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). On another Sunday, in 2008, a chunk of the