The lovely claustrophobia.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

In 2010, HarperCollins India published The Delhi Walla volumes, a series of four guidebooks on Delhi — on the city’s monuments, food and drinks, hangouts and its people.

Three years later, HarperCollins India re-issues the books in a boxed set. The original price of each book is Rs 199. But the boxed set is priced – not Rs 796 – but Rs 599.

One side of the slipcase shows the stone tower of Qutub Minar in Mehrauli; the other side displays the dargah of sufi ascetic Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

The Book Review, a literary journal, reviewed The Delhi Walla books, saying:

The four books clearly cater not just to the tourist but also to the typical Dilli walla, one who has grown up in this city, has a history rooted in its spaces, and engages with it with passionately. It is ideal for those who have moved newly and want to evolve a relationship with the city that is more than the markets you choose to buy your regular household goods from or zeroing into that one hangout that you would inhabit through the years to come.

Boxed in

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