City Book – 20 Years of Trees of Delhi, Authored by Pradip Krishen General Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 20260 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 Life by The Delhi Walla - October 22, 20260 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 Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 21, 20260 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 Nature by The Delhi Walla - October 21, 2026October 21, 20260 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 Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - October 19, 20261 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 Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 19, 20260 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)
City Home – Room no. 72, Gwyer Hall Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 20260 Home sweet home. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Room no. 72 in a hostel in Delhi University’s North Campus has something many hostel rooms don’t. A fireplace. The building dates from British times, when fireplaces warmed rooms in winter and high ceilings cooled them in summer. This room has both. The hostel, Gwyer Hall, is named after a former Delhi University vice chancellor, and is the university’s oldest men’s hostel. The room is presently occupied by PhD student Sanjay Kataria. While the fireplace goes unused even during Delhi’s super-brief winter, Sanjay has given it other duties. Its mantel holds framed photographs of his beloved poet Jaun Eliya. Elsewhere, Mona Lisa smiles from a metal cupboard. The Mona Lisa magnet came from Belgium.
Lost Landmark – Appetite German Bakery Café , Paharganj Hangouts Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 2026October 16, 20260 Paradise lost, or lost time regained. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] One long-ago afternoon, a woman in a Central Delhi café got up from her table and walked towards the bakery counter. She suddenly turned around and began moving her arms. “Look, I’m dancing,” she said, swaying her hips. See photo. The woman was Lilo Marina, from Australia. Just back from the Himalayas, she was travelling through India, she said, to seek something new in life. That was Appetite German Bakery café in Paharganj. This is the second instalment of our new series, Paradise Lost, chronicling Delhi’s vanished landmarks. Decades ago, Paharganj grew into a district of inexpensive backpacker-friendly hotels and hostels because it lay within walking distance of New Delhi railway station.
City Life – Family Photos, Old Delhi Life by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 20260 Precious archive. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The iron trunk had been lying unopened in their attic for decades, hidden amid suitcases and bags, when Arshad and Sheeba accidentally stumbled upon it last week. Inside were old photographs, some fading, a few slightly torn around the edges. It is a discovery within a home, but of some significance to the wider city outside. For the couple belong to Old Delhi’s Fehmi family, which used to publish the legendary journal Din Duniya. The photographs show people connected to the family, with the collection reaching back to Delhi’s early twentieth century. One photo bears the handwritten date “30-12-1937.” Among these many dozens of photographs, one shows a boy wearing a striped sherwani over wide-bottomed
City Life – CP in Times of Normalcy, Central Delhi Hangouts Life by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 20260 On Connaught Place surrealism. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Oh, the Regal cinema building! The world its passageway shelters! The softy stall named Everyone’s Happiness Place, the longtime burger outlet but now shut for months, the vendors hawking belts, handkerchiefs and sunglasses, the love birds walking hand in hand… the mere sight of the white building brings back these scenes. So familiar, so recognisable. So is the newly renovated Starbucks in A Block. Yet, in the Instagram reels of Saturday’s disturbances in Connaught Place, these landmarks seem to belong to another place, with security personnel and protesters gathered around them. Indeed, it is surreal to see places where we stop for a latte or wait for a friend suddenly appearing amid