City Monument – Ruins of Mehrauli, South Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Vive la Mehrauli. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Adam Khan’s tomb rose above Mehrauli’s bus adda, its façade visible against the sky. Then, a few weeks ago, a large sign appeared before it. “WELCOME,” it said, followed by “JAI MEHRAULI.” The dome rose above the greeting, while the arches appeared behind the red, green and saffron letters—see photo. The monument had been given a new role of formally welcoming everyone to the neighbourhood. Mehrauli has a new store by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. It also has so many monuments that a citizen might pass one while looking for another. The area is vast, and one sprawling part of it is called Mehrauli Archaeological Park. But outside the park, too, monuments are

City Food – Daulat ki Chaat, Chawri Bazar

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Taste of a certain season in a certain place. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The unwieldy e-rickshaws are stuck beside one another. A handcart loaded with a large parcel is caught between them. Beside his fruit cart, the vendor rests his chin on folded arms. Overhead, cables sag past signboards advertising wedding cards. Just another difficult afternoon in Old Delhi’s super-congested Chawri Bazar. The traffic is going nowhere. A little away, a vendor stands motionless behind a giant platter of daulat ki chaat. Mubarak! The wintertime street dessert is back. His shirt sleeves rolled up, vendor Sunil says he hit the streets with the season’s daulat on October 16. A fine white net, held with binder clips, is shielding the dessert from

City Life – Nony Singh’s Museum, Vasant Vihar

by The Delhi Walla - 1

Their jhappi of art. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The museum has a double bed. A cushiony gaontakiyan lies across it. On the walls are photographs by Nony Singh. This evening, three guests arrive at Nony’s Vasant Vihar apartment. Her daughter, photographer Dayanita Singh, had WhatsApped earlier in the day: “Nony Singh museum invites you for a special preview (with dal chawal) at 7 pm.” Dayanita and her mother lead the guests into a bedroom. A handwritten note on the door announces “NONY SINGH MUSEUM.” Framed black-and-white photographs cover the walls. Most are Nony’s photographs of her family. One series shows Nony’s mother wearing Nony’s father’s clothes. Elsewhere, her sister sits on a chair, her sari regally spreading towards the floor. Nony,

City Walk – Gali Madrasa Hussain Baksh, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The Walled City enyclopedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is five in the morning. Most shutters are down, but Ansar Store is aglow in the pre-dawn darkness—see photo. The grocery stays open all night, says the young man at the counter. This is Old Delhi’s Gali Madrasa Hussain Baksh, a dead-end street opening into Matia Mahal Bazar. Only Chacha Chaiwale’s stall is also open this moment. Chacha himself died last year. One of his sons is presently sitting cross-legged beside the stall’s coffee machine. It also serves coffee, a rarity among the Walled City’s chai establishments. The dispatch is a part of The Delhi Walla's weekly series exploring both the present and past of Old Delhi streets. At the gali’s far end,

City Book – 20 Years of Trees of Delhi, Authored by Pradip Krishen

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Is that a peepal or pilkhan. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A book on Delhi need not always have a monument on every other page. Or paya-nihari, or chhole bhathure, for that matter. A book might also have a leaf. Pradip Krishen’s Trees of Delhi turns twenty this year. First published in 2006, this definitive field guide covers 252 species, helping the Delhiwale recognise trees they might have been passing for years without knowing what they were. Each entry is filled with photos and gives the tree’s scientific, common and desi names, its flowering seasons, and details of its leaves and fruit. There are also where-to-see directions: the Ridge for bistendu, Jahanpanah City Forest for kareel. A quick flip of the

City Life – Jawed and Lucy, Central Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Two lives. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Most of the day, she is lying silently on the pavement, her head flopped down. Behind her, over the same hours, he stays super-busy rustling out one round of tea after another. The young man stands by his gas burner, his arms a blur with the stirring and pouring of chai for his customers. While she occasionally curls deeper into herself, lowering her face towards her paws. Neither looks at the other. But it seems each might miss the other if one were not there. The dog is Lucy. The tea man is Jawed. All the other people living and/or working on this stretch of a Central Delhi road-side call her Lucy too. Jawed

City Landmark – Landmark Foundations, Around Town

by The Delhi Walla - 1

Know your foundation. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A yellow pipe is running down a Kaka Nagar wall, passing in front of a foundation stone. The inscription states that the Kaka Nagar Flats’ foundation was laid by Bhim Mohan Singh, junior vice president of the New Delhi Municipal Council, on August 22, 1970. The pipe has no respect for the lettering. See photo. Delhi is dotted with such foundation stones. Fixed into walls, standing beside park paths, tucked near entrances, they often escape attention. Citizens might enter buildings for years without reading them. Those arranging the ceremonies, however, appear to have anticipated a wide readership with an interest in names, designations, honorifics and dates. Sometimes even weekdays. At Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur

City Season – October Light, Connaught Place

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Shadows on columns. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A man is walking in Connaught Place. He is in the Inner Circle. White columns line his path. The columns were built during British rule, along with CP’s original buildings. The man’s shadow falls on one column, his head and shoulders appearing clearly on the plaster—see photo. He walks on. The shadow leaves that column and appears on the next. The sight is surreal. October light and CP’s architecture are making this jugalbandi possible. CP’s showrooms and restaurants in Central Delhi have come and gone over the decades. But these columns have continued to stand. Now, with winter approaching, the afternoon sunlight is poetically hijacking the surfaces of these columns. Truth be told,

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Asghari Begum, Central Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 1

Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This weekday evening too, Asghari Begum is busy at work. She collects discarded things from the city’s footpaths and also doubles as an unofficial parking attendant at an informal roadside parking area in Central Delhi. While keeping an alert eye on the passing cars to see which drivers might need a parking space, she graciously agrees to take part in our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. The principal aspect of your personality? Ghar mein ladki, bahar ladka. (I’m a woman at home, a man outside.) Your favourite occupation? Eating the roti that I earn through my own hard work. Just now,

City Walk – Gali Sakko Wali, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The Walled City enyclopedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] All the doors on both sides of the lane are shut. A couple have cobwebs around their locks and latches, suggesting they haven’t been touched for a long time. This pre-dawn morning, only cats are moving about Old Delhi’s Gali Sakko Wali. Now a man in grey kurta pajamas is entering from Matia Mahal Bazar, into which the dead-end lane opens. Returning from morning prayers at a nearby mosque, he introduces himself as Farooq Bhai. He is a bawarchi, a cook. Many residents here are bawarchis, he says. Gali Sakko Wali is part of our weekly exploration of Old Delhi’s streets, their pasts and present. The lane’s name recalls the sakko (or sakke)

Top