Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Roshan Khatoon, Central Delhi Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - January 29, 2026January 29, 20260 Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] She is finally done for the day. Roshan Khatoon, a housekeeper, has just finished her evening work in a central Delhi household, and is getting ready to leave for home. With an umbrella and pithu bag in hand, she patiently agrees to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. Your hero in real life. My husband. We had a love marriage—I first met Salman on Instagram about three years ago. My first husband was not good to me, but Salman loves my three children and takes care of them as if they were his own. My
Delhi Homes – House without a Balcony, Sahibabad Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - January 29, 20260 A home of windows. [Text and photo by Maynak Austen Soofi] Delhi’s outdoors have grown increasingly hostile. Extreme pollution is poisoning the air, summer heatwaves are becoming inhumanely intense, and every year the monsoon inflicts a renewed threat of dengue fever. One victim of this triple whammy is an element of multi-floor housing architecture that is commonly taken for granted. The balcony. Once a cherished outdoor space at home for breathing, observing, and relaxing, the balconies in the city’s residential towers are losing their relevance. Today, they survive mainly as decorative relics. Even those citizens who have the luxury of balcony rarely step into it, keeping themselves secured in AC rooms equipped with air purifiers. Many balconies, in fact, tend to be sealed
City Life – Dayanita Singh’s Myself Mona Ahmed, Mehnediya Qabristan Life by The Delhi Walla - January 27, 2026January 27, 20261 Mona's silver jubilee. [Text and photo by Maynak Austen Soofi] At the Paramount Book Store in Janpath market, the shelves are lined with bestselling titles. Amid the clutter, one slim hardbound quietly draws attention. Sealed in plastic, it is priced at a startling 10,000 rupees. Bookseller Naresh’s explanation: the book is rare and long out of print. Set in Delhi, Myself Mona Ahmed is regarded as a classic. This year it turns 25. Photographer Dayanita Singh’s book interlaces image and text to trace the life of Mona Ahmed, a transgender person in Old Delhi. Documented over 13 years, the work unfolds in Mona’s voice—on love, loneliness, and on her life within and outside the eunuch community. It is also a record of an
City Walk – Republic Day Parade Sights, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 26, 20260 On 26 January, 2026. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is the day of the parade. Most of us Indians associate the annual Republic Day parade on 26 January with the stretch along New Delhi’s Kartavya Path. This is the section that passes before an audience of the republic’s top VVIPs and is broadcast live on TV. The parade actually continues beyond this familiar route. Here is a sense of some of the sights that our esteemed paraders will see today as they parade along the historic route. Photo shows citizens trying to get a glimpse of a previous year’s parade as it crosses the Dilli Gate traffic light. After exiting out of Vijay Chowk, Kartavya Path, and India Gate—the
City Walk – Gali Blue Door Wali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 25, 20260 The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is one of Old Delhi’s longer streets. Gali Choori Walan extends from Matia Mahal Bazaar to Chawri Bazaar. Along the way, it branches into a web of evocatively named alleys—Gali Surkh Poshan, Gali Mirza Sorayya Jaan, Gali Hakeemji Wali, Gali Joote Wali, Gali Takhat Wali, Gali Manihar Wali, Phatak Deputy Sultan, Gali Magazine Wali, Gali Hafiz Banne Wali—and one alley that carries no name. Yet it is this unnamed alley that is the most notable. Unlike its cousin-alleys, it is not a cul-de-sac. instead, it is a connective corridor binding Gali Choori Walan to Chatta Sheikh Mangloo street. Denied a distinct identity of its own, the alley is dismissed as a
City Season – 2026 Basant Panchmi, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Faith Nature by The Delhi Walla - January 23, 20260 The return of yellow. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Red roses everywhere; including on the marble floor. The Sufi shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in central Delhi feels like a sanctuary to this flower, as it is to its 14th century patron saint. Indeed, the lanes to the dargah lie crammed with rose stalls. Pilgrims buy these roses as they walk towards the shrine, carrying the flowers as offerings. By day’s end, Hazrat Nizamuddin’s grave gets buried beneath mounds of red roses. The roses reign in the shrine throughout the year—except for one day, when the red gives way to yellow. That special day is today. This evening, the dargah will receive visitors in yellow caps, turbans and scarves. They
City Monument – Jama Masjid Views, Old Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - January 22, 20260 One landmark, many perspectives. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Which Old Delhi monument is so grand and so visible from all parts of the historic quarter that it appears to symbolize the entire Old Delhi? It is not the great Red Fort, which lies on the outer limits of the Walled City; a good part of it anyway destroyed in the 1857 uprising. That monument is the Jama Masjid. The sandstone edifice is visible from the rooftops of every neighbourhood in Purani Dilli. During the Emergency years, in the 1970s, some members of the ruling party wanted to demolish parts of the Walled City, to create an unhindered view of the monument. “I want Jama Masjid to be clearly visible from Turkman
City Hangout – Subramania Bharathi’s Statue, Central Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - January 21, 2026January 21, 20260 Poet's plaza. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Poets light but lamps, themselves go out—wrote poet Emily Dickinson. One such poet whose lamp continues to light our world was “Mahakavi” Subramania Bharathi, who died way back in 1921. He also guides us along a particular pathway, literally. A Delhi road is named after him. The road is frequented daily by the city’s fashionable set, for it goes past the fashionable Khan Market. It also passes by another road called Maharishi Raman Marg. On this road lies a little plaza. In this plaza stands a statue. It is of Subramania Bharathi. The plaza mostly remains deserted, with a handful of benches dispersed about the poet’s statue. One bench is placed under a tall
City Landmark – Amrit Book Company, Connaught Place Hangouts Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - January 21, 20260 Landmark through generations. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In the olden times, most bazar shops would bear a framed photograph, often sanctified with a scented mala of the day’s fresh marigolds. These beloved portraits were mostly of the shop’s departed founder. The shop’s current owner, usually the founder’s son or later descendant, would sit directly under the revered frame. Such sights no longer exist in as many numbers. Certainly not in Connaught Place (CP). The colonial-era shopping district used to be crammed with family-run shops. Over the recent decades, many of those have been replaced by uniform-looking retail chain stores, which might have their quirks, but which lack the individuality of family-run businesses. Fortunately, a few of those former CP establishments
Mission Delhi – Usha Singh, Ghaziabad Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - January 19, 20260 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Despite her advanced years and the physical frailties that come with them, Usha Singh daily ventures to explore the world outside her home. And what if the world she explores exists at the very threshold of her home, and not further? On this cold January evening, the venerable lady is making turns in a tiny cramped corridor right on the landing of her sixth floor flat. In her mid-80s, she walks slowly. At times, she pauses. One arm presses down on her quadripod cane, while the other arm reaches out to the wall for support. She stands motionless in this posture for a few moments, head bending