The Delhi Walla Books – Novelist Anuja Chauhan’s Review The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - December 6, 2010December 6, 20103 A bestselling author's verdict. [By Anuja Chauhan] They say one of the greatest simple joys you can experience is to become a tourist in your own city. Just two books have actually made me do that – the first is William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns - and the second is Mayank Austen Soofi’s The Delhi Walla series. As winter creeps in, and the urge to bunk work and wander through the city in the winter sun kicks in, you can have no better companion than these slim, extremely well researched and evocatively written volumes. They’re light enough for you to carry a pattal of hot, smoky, masala and nimbu sprinkled shakkarkandi in your other hand, and they don’t look at
City Landmark – People’s Publishing House, Connaught Place Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 4, 2010December 4, 20101 Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Vladimir Ilyich Lenin has an arresting stare. Meet the Marxist revolutionary at a bookstore in the capitalistic Connaught Place, central Delhi’s premium shopping district. His portrait hangs close to a shelf stocked with bestselling trash such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Love Story. Opened in 1945, People’s Publishing House (PPH) in Marina Arcade, Outer Circle, is the Capital’s saddest bookshop. As storekeeper of an excessively flawed ideology, its signature collection consists of inexpensive books that were published in a country that no longer exists: Soviet Union, aka USSR. PPH has two more outlets in 5-E, Rani Jhansi Road and near Central Library, Jawaharlal Nehru University. The branch in Connaught Place
Photo Essay – Are Newspapers Dead? Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - December 2, 2010December 7, 20102 The ‘daily’ life in Delhi. [Edited text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Mizo woman was walking towards her home in Moti village near Dhaula in south Delhi when the men in a vehicle abducted her and took turns to rape her. The Capital was in for some fruity fun as Italian aperitif brand Campari launched its range of fruit-based drinks at Aqua, The Park. Taking on the MCD in Delhi Assembly on Tuesday, urban development minister Dr AK Walia asserted that the civic agency needs to speed up the process to regularize the five lakh (approximate) street vendors and squatters in the capital. Thousands of people danced, sang and cheered through the streets of Delhi on Sunday in a colourful
City Landmark – Delhi Photo Company, Janpath Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 1, 2010December 1, 20101 1937-2010. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The other afternoon The Delhi Walla was walking in Janpath, Connaught Place. Reaching in front of an old landmark, I stood with amazement and then I laughed. What used to be Delhi Photo Company was now a restaurant specializing in Mediterranean cuisine. Fresc Co opened on September 22 2010. In February 2009, I had stepped into Delhi Photo Company to chat with its owner and walk around its back area. I was happy that in this age of digicams, the photo studio was still surviving. The owner’s son was full of plans. He showed me the art gallery that he was building inside the studio to encourage young photographers. He pointed to the tables
Memo from Nizamuddin Dargah – Meeting the Other Sex General by The Delhi Walla - November 27, 2010November 27, 20103 The world of the hijras. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] In November 2010, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi extended its pension scheme for deprived sections to the city’s eunuchs. They will now get a monthly pension of Rs 1,000. A few evenings later in the courtyard of Hazrat Nizamuddin's sufi shrine, The Delhi Walla came across a group of eunuchs, better known as hijras. You, too, must have seen them — in public gardens, at traffic lights, and perhaps also in your apartment complex if there had been a wedding, a birth, or some such happy occasion in the next-door flat. Rarely with regular jobs, hijras earn by asking for money; in exchange they offer their blessings. No one is sure
City Food – Julia Child Makes Chai in Turkman Gate Julia Child's Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 25, 2010February 27, 20113 The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of Turkman Gate, a congested neighbourhood in the Walled City. Quiet and gentle, Child is not sure of his age but he looks like as if he is in his 40s. Born and brought up in Turkman Gate, he has been following the trade of his father and grandfather – making tea. This is an art as complicated as boiling an egg. Chai stalls – specializing in readymade light-brown brew - are all over Delhi. Most are passable, with a drawback or two. Some make chai that’s too milky. Some flavour it with too much cardamom. Some are too generous with ginger. Some go overboard
Mission Delhi – Vijay Kumar, Paharganj Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 24, 2010November 24, 20102 One of the one per cent in 13 million. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] For the last 10 minutes, his grey eyes haven’t blinked; his posture on the green plastic chair hasn’t changed. Vijay Kumar, 56, is selling second-hand books in Paharganj, central Delhi, for 30 years. “Nothing has changed since 1980, when I started this stall,” he says. The Delhi Walla meets him one winter morning at his pavement stall on Rajguru Road, near Imperial cinema. “The only difference is that, cell phone hoardings have come up and more hotels have mushroomed. Paharganj is less residential now.” Jostled between Blessing Hotel and Rajasthani Music Emporium, Mr Kumar’s establishment has novels and guidebooks in English, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian
The Delhi Walla Books – They Are Not Enough The Delhi Walla books by The Delhi Walla - November 22, 2010November 22, 20108 Reflections at the Midland bookstore, South Extension-I. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The other day I met a friend in Lodhi Garden. She remarked on my unkempt hair. I said, “Who cares! I’m a bloody author of four books!” That same evening I went to the Midland bookstore in South Extension-I. I’m regular there but the owner has never ever chatted to me. At the most, he would nod at me before getting on with his business. Yesterday, however, he did talk (Even the owner's son shook hands with me!). Bookseller: You must give me a part of the loot. Me: What! Bookseller: We are really selling your books. Me: Oh, oh. So, are they selling well? Bookseller: Selling like hot cakes. Dilliwalla are a
City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Barakhamba Style by The Delhi Walla - November 18, 2010March 11, 20112 Searching for the stylish. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla saw this man coming out of Barakhamba Metro station, gate no. 6, in Connaught Place, Delhi’s premier commercial district. It was 9 am, the rush hour. At first, I could only see his red turban, the essential headgear of the Sikhs. After getting off the escalators, the much younger crowd got ahead of him. Tapping his spiral-detailed walking stick (mahogany?) on the cemented ground, he slowly emerged into full view. The man’s white beard was arranged neatly; his body was frail; his posture erect; his eyes shielded by maroon-rimmed spectacles were grey. The greyness of his crisscross printed tie, worn with a double knot, was in harmony with
The Biographical Dictionary of Delhi – Shanky, b. Chandni Chowk, Delhi, 1968 Biographical Dictionary by The Delhi Walla - November 16, 2010July 7, 20153 The definitive directory of famous Delhiites. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Shanky’s is one of the more curious careers in Indian cinema. This son of a factory supervisor is as unknown as any acclaimed art house film. A collector of movie posters, he is a familiar face only among the high-end dealers of Bollywood’s premier kitsch art. Shanky was a shop assistant at a footwear store in Old Delhi’s Ballimaran. Before that, he was a student at the madarsa in Chandni Chowk’s Fatehpuri Masjid. Dabbling with photography swept him into his life’s calling. Distributors of black and white films would come to his photo studio in Maujpur, east Delhi, to get their posters touched with flashy colours. In 2006, Shanky