Mission Delhi – Nayana Goradia, Sunder Nagar Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - June 30, 20250 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet Dilli’s no. 1 Joycean. This gentlewoman in Sunder Nagar is likely to be the only Delhi dweller to have made it to the most significant James Joyce destination on the very first day of its opening to the public. It all started in 1922, with the publication of Ulysses. Joyce’s great Dublin novel unfolds within a single day—16 June, today named Bloomsday after the book’s hero, and celebrated across the world. That day, Dublin‘s sea-facing Martello tower becomes a mecca for Joyce fans; it being the site of the novel’s opening scene. In 1962, the tower was filled with souvenirs from the writer life, and thrown
Mission Delhi – Rohit Taneja, Connaught Place Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - June 28, 20250 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is a must for any Delhi citizen planning to travel abroad to at least once enter this sprawling basement complex tucked under Shivaji Stadium metro station. Here is the office of VFS Global, the company to which most foreign embassies have outsourced their visa application procedures. The friendly staffers examining the necessary documents sit behind their formidable counter, exercising extraordinary patience with nervous visa applicants. Rohit Taneja is one of those staffers. He is a “visa manager” for the Schengen countries of Europe. Like any of us with an office job, he has his identity firmly stitched into the fabric of his workplace. But he
City Faith – Sree Jagannath Mandir Rath Yatra, Hauz Khas Faith by The Delhi Walla - June 26, 20250 A temple's big day [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The artist arrived in our city from his native Odisha early this month. Since then Gopal Mopalo has been applying a shining coat of colours to scores of sacred idols, sculptures and illustrations that grace the beautiful Sree Jagannath Mandir in Hauz Khas. This humid afternoon, he is concentrating on the figure of a lion—see photo. The venerable man is extremely polite, not showing irritation on being interrupted from his immersive work. He hails from a “heritage village” in distant Odisha, and was summoned to help prepare the temple for the festival of Rath Yatra, due on Friday, 27 June. Overlooking the Hauz Khas Village road, the all-white temple has its sanctum
City Landmark – Ishtiaq’s Shaving Stall, Chelmsford Road Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - June 25, 2025June 25, 20250 Ode to hajamat stall [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Hand mirror nailed to the pavement wall. Chair turned away from the street, facing the small mirror. Such is the introverted world of a hajamat stall—the shaving establishment on the city pave. Improvised from most basic elements, the barber sets it up every morning with care and attention. He dismantles it at the day’s end, erasing the stall so completely from the face of earth, that, on gazing at the vacant space, you wouldn’t believe it existed. This institution is sighted across Delhi. Citizen Ishtiaq’s shaving establishment is standing out these days for being among the capital’s most picturesque. The stall is currently glowing in pink, having been raided by flamboyant bougainvillea bushes.
Mission Delhi – Maidul, Connaught Lane Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - June 25, 20250 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The spot under the short spindly tree on Connaught Lane in Central Delhi marks citizen Maidul’s anda-bread egg stall. Every evening, this tiny portion of the capital’s real estate becomes the middle-aged man’s corner in the big wide world. To reach this place, he had to shift his bases many times over, across the country. Some forty years ago, a young Maidul left his village in Bihar’s Katihar to find a new life in the unfamiliar megapolis of Delhi. There was just no promising future in the village. His landless forefathers had exhausted their lifetimes as hired farmers. In Delhi, Maidul started as a waiter in
Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Poet Arjit Roy, Rohini City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - June 25, 20250 A poet's incomplete world [By Mayank Austen Soofi] While the sun beats, the dead tree gives no shelter, and the cricket no relief. The world is a heap of broken images. This evocation from poet TS Eliot’s Waste Land can get uncomfortably personal. After all, a substantial chunk of our lives consists of a heap of unfinished fragments. We rarely reach the end of things. Our incomplete endeavours are of many types—a broken New Year resolution, an aborted love affair, or even a thing as banal as the Uber driver cancelling the ride. Here are three of citizen Arjit Roy’s many untitled verses that failed to find their end. This evening, the Rohini-based poet scrolls through his mobile phone, showing the poems
City Landmark – Absent Tree, Lodhi Garden Hangouts Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - June 24, 2025June 24, 20250 A fragile renewal [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The skeletal tree used to stand here, in the middle of the grassy expanse, facing the centuries-old stone monument. Now the spot is a muddy brown patch. Delhi’s Lodhi Garden is full of extraordinary trees, but this dead tree was special. Though leafless for a long time, it had continued to stand, lending the park a heart-touching beauty. The tree fell on its own accord two weeks ago. A dispatch on the loss appeared on these pages a day after. This evening, we are back to the place. Not to mourn, but to investigate what happens after a much-loved city landmark vanishes. What replaces the gaping loss? How does the affected place
City Faith – Five Shrines, Khan Market Faith Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - June 23, 20251 Khan Market pilgrimages. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Bahrisons, Good Earth, K.K. Lee, Fab Foto, Khan Chacha, Faqir Chand... these long-time icons of Delhi’s legendary Khan Market have evolved into necessary pilgrimage points for Khan Market anthropologists. Not many are aware that the same commercial space also harbours actual pilgrimage points from five religions. One is within the market, while others lie within a very short walk of a minute or two, at most. Temple Posh people are flitting about the market this evening. At quarter past seven, the front lane’s west side is startled by a sudden tinkling of what appears to be temple bells. The sound is indeed floating out from this corner of the market lane. This is Shri
Bloomsday 2025 – The Delhi Walla’s Long Speech on James Joyce’s Ulysses, Dublin Life Travel by The Delhi Walla - June 22, 2025June 23, 20250 In Joyce's Dublin. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] This piece originally appeared in the Bloomsday edition of The Irishman's Diary in The Irish Times. Seen the Martello. Got the soap from Sweny’s. Yay, I’m in Dublin! Gradually ticking things off the list. Thalatta! Thalatta! Next on the agenda—throwing pieces of Banbury cakes to the Liffey gulls. Friendly greetings from a Joycean pilgrim. My dream of celebrating Bloomsday in Bloom’s city is just about to happen. After voyaging 5,000 miles over Asia and Europe (no Scylla or Charybdis—just airplane snacks), I landed two days ago. Switched the masala English for the Irish sing-song. Such happiness to be here. I’m a city writer and photographer, and for the past twenty years I’ve been compulsively documenting and narrating life
City Walk – Gali Shankar Wali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - June 22, 20250 The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] All the sincere conjectures about the street’s name reverently points to the same divinity. Every passer-by accosted in Gali Shankar Wali assumes that the Old Delhi lane must have obviously been named after Shankar Bhagwan. One dweller—actor Kaushal Kumar—leans out from his first-floor balcony, stating matter-of-factly: “Shankarji visits our gali at night when everyone’s sleeping.” In the dull light of the day, however, the lane resembles an earthly cluster of residences and shops. The banners of street businesses bear fascinating names though: Lovely Store, Muscle Care Nutrition Store, Bright Beauty Parlour, Scissors-A Cut Above Men’s Salon…. then there is the buzzy Razabul’s Chai Khana sharing its wall with Zeeshan Roti Wale bakery.