Delhi Metro – The Wenger’s Man, Blue Line Delhi Metro by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 20152 Life in the Metro. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] 9 pm, Saturday night. The Delhi Walla is on the Blue Line of the Delhi Metro. The train halts at Mandi House. The platform is almost empty. Only one person steps into the coach. He is holding a big box wrapped in a silver-colored gift paper. He looks around and settles down on a seat reserved “For Old or Physically Challenged’. Somehow, the man seems familiar. Very familiar. He is wearing a turban and has a beard. The penny drops. This is that man from the Wenger’s, the famous Colonial-era cake shop in Connaught Place. He is always seen standing behind the counter, chatting to customers and taking orders for birthday cakes. Charanjeet Singh,
The Biographical Dictionary of Delhi – Raghu Rai, b. Jhang, Pre-Partition Punjab, 1942 Biographical Dictionary by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 2015November 20, 20150 India's great photographer.[ Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This year, Raghu Rai completed 50 years of photography. In December, Aleph India will publish his book Picturing Time: The Greatest Photographs of Raghu Rai. Born in Jhang village in the pre-Partition Punjab in December 1942, his has been an extremely productive and acclaimed journey. Mr Rai has published more than 40 books, which show the story of contemporary India. His first book, published in 1971, was on then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. His recent book was on Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was also the subject of one of Mr Rai’s books published in 2014. Mr Rai’s archive has more than 500,000 photographs. The first one he took
City Style – The Man with the Peacock Feather, Urdu Bazaar Style by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 2015November 20, 20150 Searching for the stylish. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His eyes were underlined strongly with black kaajal. His get-up included a white skullcap, and a necklace of green plastic beads. He had one leg; one of his two crutches was luxuriously decorated with a real peacock feather. It also had a purple plastic flower, with green plastic leaves. There was some purple on his white shore, too. There was no one dressed like him. The Delhi Walla saw this stylish man one morning in the Walled City’s Urdu Bazaar. He was standing still, quietly watching the pedestrians on the road. There was a huge red bag on his back. The man’s wiry, black beard was neatly trimmed. A scarf
City Monument – William Daniell’s Drawings of Mughal Delhi, Around Town Monuments by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 20152 Old views of an old city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Camels wandering around Humayun’s Tomb, an elephant standing by the mausoleum of Safdarjung, and deserted mansions in Old Delhi. Every place looks so quiet and serene, especially the hauntingly bare shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (top). These are some of the images of Delhi as seen in The Oriental Annual or Scenes in India Comprising Engravings from Original Drawings by William Daniell; he was an English landscape painter and engraver. This set of seven hardbound volumes was published by Bull and Churton in London during the 1830s -- a time when Delhi was still ruled by the Mughals from the Red Fort and when Old Delhi was not referred to
Photo Essay – The Night of the Lights, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 2015November 20, 20151 Colors of Sufism. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Orange, purple and green. These were the colors of that magical night. The Delhi Walla was in the Dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The shrine’s courtyard is always empty at this late hour. But this night it was filled with a great crowd. There were qawwal singers performing their famous qawwalis. The entire shrine was decked up like a Christmas tree. The dome at Hazrat Nizamuddin’s tomb glowed orange. The central dome of the adjacent Jamaatkhana mosque was lit up in purple. Its two side domes were bathed in green. “The lighting has been organised by an industrialist family,” said one of the shrine’s caretakers. “They are celebrating
Mission Delhi – Sufi the Cat, Mehrauli Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 20150 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Thumri singer is seated on her writing chair. The cat is seated on the Thumri singer’s lap. The Delhi Walla is in Vidya Rao’s apartment. Ms Rao, who also works as an Editorial Consultant with Orient Blackswan Publishers, lives with Sufi, her cat, in Mehrauli. Their balcony looks out onto the 11th century tower of Qutub Minar. Sufi is not as old as a Delhi monument but she is quite old for a cat. “She is 16 and a half year old,” says Ms Rao, adding, “Her health is not as good as it was.” Sufi has “old-age related problems.” Her liver and kidneys are no longer functioning smoothly.
100 Things to Do Before You Quit Delhi – Sky & People Watching, Indian Coffee House Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 2015November 20, 20151 The perfect Delhi experience. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The sky always changes its color. It’s just that many of us don’t ever notice it. There are so many things to do when you live in a big city like Delhi.As part of The Delhi Walla’s series ‘100 Things to Do Before You Quit Delhi’, I ask you to spend a few hours on the terrace of the Indian Coffee House in Connaught Place. It’s a very inexpensive place and they let you lounge over a single cup of black coffee (26 rupees) for as long as you like (Ignore the rude notice board that says, “Sitting Idle is Wastage of Time’). Come in the afternoon, around two. Try to make it in
City Season – Signs of Winter, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 20150 A nip in the air. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world in Delhi changed on the morning of 28 October 2015. “It is finally cold,” said Arshad Ali Fehmi (see above), an Old Delhi resident. He was seated on his roof. “Next month my sister will visit us from Canada. She always likes to come to Delhi in the winter.” Usually, the change in the season is barely perceived. One day, it is warm and every man is seen in a shirt or vest, like the day before. The next day, the same people are spotted in a jacket or shawl. The Delhi Walla spent a day picking up clues of the approaching cold. In Humayunpur village, quilts and blankets were spread out
City Obituary – Meraj Ahmed Nizami, Delhi’s Greatest Qawwal, is No More General by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 20150 Passing of an era. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Qawwali, Islam’s sacred Sufi music offered in the shrines of the Indian subcontinent, confronts its biggest tragedy of our time. Meraj Ahmed Nizami, the patriarch of Nizami Khusro Bandhu family in the Sufi shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, died on the night of 18 October 2015. He was ill for a long time and breathed his last while on way to the hospital, his son Hasnain Nizami Qawwal told The Delhi Walla. Meraj was in his late 80s and was suffering from asthma and diabetes. The news of Meraj’s death appeared in no newspaper. This is a great surprise. Meraj was one of the few classical qawwals left in India. He rendered Persian Sufi verses most
Mission Delhi – Ashutosh Tripathi, The Bookshop Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - November 20, 20150 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He looks as solemn as a nuclear scientist. Ashutosh Tripathi is the new face at The Bookshop in Jor Bagh Market. The Delhi Walla meets him one quiet evening during his work hours. Mr Tripathi, 30, sits in the bookstore daily from two in the afternoon to the closing time at half past seven. He replaced Sughandh Chaturvedi, the former shop assistant at the bookstore who was often seen seated behind the cash counter with a copy of Marcel Proust. Ms Chaturvedi left her job to prepare for the Civil Services entrance exam. Mr Tripathi and Ms Chaturvedi are the latest in a long series of shop assistants who