Memo from Paharganj – Life After The Renovation General by The Delhi Walla - November 7, 2010November 7, 20101 Reporting from the backpackers’ ghetto. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] How is Paharganj, Delhi’s backpackers’ ghetto, doing? Popular among budget tourists for its low-price hotels and cafes, the area’s Main Market underwent renovation in the run up to the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. The road was widened, the encroaching shops were demolished and the pavements laid with bricks. Quite a few hotels and restaurants went for a more personalized renovation: a new coat of paint was applied, floors were re-done and windowpanes replaced. The popular Everest Café, for instance, opened another wing. Late one evening The Delhi Walla went there to test the mood. It was not crowded, very unlike Paharganj. “The Main Market did not get business during the
The Delhi Walla Books – They Are Bestsellers The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - November 4, 2010November 4, 201013 5,000 copies sold. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla has got company. The other evening US President Barack Obama was sitting beside me. I mean Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars was placed next to my books, The Delhi Walla series, at the front shelf of Khan Market's Faqirchand Bookstore. “Your books are doing very well,” the lady in Faqirchand said. “They will keep on selling well,” Anuj Bahri of Bahrisons Booksellers said. “The Delhi Walla is selling like hot cakes,” said the man in Full Circle bookstore. It’s official: my books have become bestsellers. All three volumes have been in the Top 10 bestselling list of Asian Age – for two consecutive weeks. Just hours before writing this, I got a
Mission Delhi – Raghavendra Vanjre, Hauz Khas Village Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 2, 2010November 2, 20102 One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Approaching the table where two new guests have seated, he looks curiously at the book one of them has placed beside the flower vase. It is the paperback edition of Sam Miller’s Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity. While presenting them the menu, he asks if he can borrow the book for a minute. They oblige. The Delhi Walla met Raghavendra Vanjre, 31, in Naivedyam, a south Indian specialty restaurant in south Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village. A staff captain, he is fond of reading. In the restaurant, he has established bonds with regular guests, who are fellow book lovers. If they happen to be dining alone, Mr Vanjre
City Library – The Delhi Walla, Nizamuddin Basti Library by The Delhi Walla - November 1, 2010September 15, 20119 A vanishing world. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] One day there will still be books, but they might not be in the printed form. In the series City Library, The Delhi Walla will make a record of the private libraries of Delhiwallas. In each library, I will try to understand the library owner through his or her collection of books. How many books are there? How many books does she buy every week? How did she acquire her library? Why this author? Why so many books on, say, Soviet Russia? Whose picture is on that bookshelf? Why does not she lend her books? Which bookshop she is addicted to? What will happen to the library after her? I start with my