On a landmark city book.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Once upon a time two foreigners arrived in the capital with their respective families. Residing in our smoggy Dilli for a few years, Gaynor Barton and Laurraine Malone were taken in by the Walled City’s “crowded pavements, fragile rickshaws and noisy buzz of people and traffic.” They ended up co-writing a book on Purani Dilli.

37 years later, The Delhi Walla excavated the first edition of that book— ‘Old Delhi: 10 Easy Walks’—from under a pile of used paperbacks in Delhi’s Sunday Book Bazar. The cover shows a mashak walla, the street hawker who sells water in goat-skin bags called mashak. The photo stood out because Delhi’s mashak wale have gone almost extinct. On carrying the book to the spot where the photo was clicked all those years ago, the only mashak walla present there immediately recognised the man on the cover.

The consequent dispatch was recently published on these pages, along with a portrait of the mashak man holding the said book. Within days, the two authors — now living thousands of miles away in their native England—contacted me over e-mail. Gaynor said: “It was fascinating to learn the man’s name was Bhoore, and wonderful to see the resurfacing of our guide book to Old Delhi in the hands of a man who knew the water seller I’d photographed so long ago!”

Over the years, the publishers released two updated versions of the book. But the collector’s item is the first edition. In 1988, it emerged at a time when the culture of city walks was yet to take off. To be sure, Old Delhi has always been prized for its rich heritage. ‘10 Easy Walks’ nevertheless distinguishes itself for being a pioneer in highlighting the old quarter’s contemporary life. Until then, hardly anybody had thought of its streets worthy enough to be archived (except for National Geographic magazine, which in its golden era, during the 1970s and 80s, occasionally featured excellent photo essays on Delhi).

The paperback has aged beautifully. Its charmingly individualistic writing style gives adequate reading pleasure to citizens not inclined to leave the comfort of their air-conditioners and air-purifiers. It is also packed with a handful of coloured photos. One picture shows a bunch of men playing chaupad. You no longer see chaupad players in Delhi streets!

In the e-mail, Gaynor shared her and her co-writer’s present-day photos. Both ladies are seen holding their personal copy of the book’s first edition. Gaynor noted that “Laurraine is turning 78 this month, and I’ll be 80 in September, yet we both are in good health. Perhaps all that walking about Old Delhi in the heat in the 1980s has helped us to stay fit.”