City Landmark- Joseph Stein’s Triveni Kala Sangam, Mandi House Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - April 10, 2026April 10, 20260 Double milestones. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The building changes over the course of the day. At peak sunlight, the roof of the terrace expands. The edges loosen from the concrete and extend outward. This, of course, is impossible. A building cannot shift its shape. And yet it appears to do just that. Thanks to the way it is designed, especially in relation to daylight and shadows. This shifting terrace feels like a suitable reason to revisit the building today. As this day Delhi marks the intersection of two milestones: the 114th birth anniversary of architect Joseph Stein with the 75th year of Triveni Art Gallery, the first major Delhi building that Stein designed. Triveni Kala Sangam must rank among Delhi’s most wondrous
City Landmark – The Bookstore Couple, Khan Market Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - March 30, 2026March 30, 20260 The Bahrisons Booksellers pair. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here, everyone’s watching, hoping to be watched in return. Khan Market isn’t a mere market; it’s a mirror of how Delhi sees itself and wants to be seen. Shops and cafés in this bazar come and go, each new name slipping into the place of an old favourite. Established in 1951, the market’s centrality hasn’t been dented by the invasion of shopping malls. At the centre of the front lane stands one of the market’s oldest landmarks, since 1953. Bahrisons Booksellers is run by a longtime couple. Anuj Bahri Malhotra sits upstairs in the shop; Rajni Malhotra downstairs. Their joint portrait is part of a series marking the market’s 75th year. Those who
City Landmark – Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre, Central Delhi Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - February 23, 20260 The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] At Turkman Gate Chowk, the eye first naturally settles on Turkman Gate—a seventeenth-century stone fragment holding its ground against traffic, cables, and the chaos of street life. For years, the view toward the gateway’s west-facing side, overlooking the historic Ramlila Maidan, was choked by construction. The recent demolition of those “encroachments” has opened up the sightline. While standing at the stone gateway, you can now directly spot the Ramlila Maidan pavilion built to receive Elizabeth II in 1961—a structure so modest it can easily be overlooked. What now dominates the setting is the vertical concrete beyond: the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre (see photo). At 112 metres, this glass-and-concrete tower
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
City Landmark – New Delhi Railway Station, Central Delhi Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - January 9, 20260 Shatabdi expressed. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Every Delhi walla has probably been here. It is the New Delhi railway station, which, this year, is hitting a shatabdi, or century. The city landmark first came up as an interchange station bearing a platform 800 feet long and 20 feet wide. Then came the setting up of a “wayside station,” which led to a small building. An expanded building opened in 1956, when the then President Rajendra Prasad pulled a silver signal lever, prompting a “presidential train” to chug into the platform. All these details are enshrined in a plaque outside the station. Today, the railway station with its 16 platforms is undergoing an ambitious “redevelopment” project. The station outdoors are packed with
City Landmark – SRG Unisex Salon, Connaught Place Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - January 8, 20260 Since 1934. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The first thing that arrests the gaze is the row of hand-woven chairs with polished wooden armrest. You no longer see such super-elegant chairs. They must be truly old. Then the gaze is hijacked by the three low-hanging fans suspended from the unusually high ceiling. One of these has to be an antique—indeed it doesn’t function anymore, and is here merely for the show. Then the gaze turns to the grand entry door, as tall as two Amitabh Bachchans. Finally, you notice the celebrity in the room—storyteller Fouzia. Delhi’s pioneering woman dastango, she is having her hair coloured (reddish-brown, if you must know). Fouzia has been a patron of SRG Unisex Salon since 2002.
City Life – 2025 Losses, Around Town Hangouts Landmarks Life by The Delhi Walla - December 31, 20250 The year that was. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] We feel most acutely for what we have lost. As the year reaches an end, here’s an accounting of three profound losses that the city suffered this year. One is a tree, one is a tea house, and one is a bookstore. Truth be told, this tree was never alive in our living memory. It had always seemed dead and leafless. Nobody could even tell what kind of tree it was. The woody skeleton, however, had stood upright in Lodhi Garden for many years. Its bare branches, ending in prickly tips, were in constant use as a resting place for birds in flight, just as the grassy ground below served as
City Landmark – Wenger’s, Connaught Place Food Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 19, 20251 A city institution is turning 100. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Don’t be nervous about the forthcoming new year. At least one of its aspects is guaranteed to be special, in a sweet way. 2026 will mark the 100 years of Wenger’s. An iconic Delhi institution, the cake shop started as a catering outfit for the British troops in 1924. A Swiss lady called Jeanne Sterchi had co-founded the place with her husband, a Mr Wenger. Two years later, in 1926, the catering outfit reinvented itself as a confectionery and tea room at the Exchange Store Building in north Delhi’s Civil Lines. The confectionary shifted to its present address in Connaught Place’s A Block during the late 1920s, or perhaps the early
City Landmark – Triveni Kala Sangam, Tansen Road Hangouts Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - December 8, 20250 Souvenirs of a landmark. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is not merely a bunch of glued up printed pages, but a precious memento of Delhi’s illustrious art world. Sadly, the institution that published this slim book is left with only a single copy. The rare object will be a part of the forthcoming exhibition “Triveni Kala Sangam turns 75: Sundari Shridharani and the Making of a Cultural Landmark,” from February 27 to March 15. The book was presented to select invitees in 1963, marking the inaugural of Triveni Kala Sangram’s then new building. The capital’s pioneering art institution is in fact clocking its diamond jubilee this year. While the centre was set up way back in 1950 in Connaught Place
City Life – Olive Trees, Around Town Landmarks Life by The Delhi Walla - December 5, 20250 Rare presence. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The cold evening is unfolding smoothly in an “exclusive” gathering at the Italian ambassador’s residence in central Delhi’s Chandragupta Marg. Imported wine is being circulated among the privileged set. The highlight is a dinner buffet curated by a Michelin starred chef visiting from Sardinia. Indeed, the society people are greedily queuing up at the risotto counter. Meanwhile, a tree stands outside in the residence’s large garden, looking a tad smudgy in Delhi’s winter-time smog. The tree is short, its disproportionately vaster foliage hanging upon the stumpy trunk like a halo. See photo. It is an olive tree. The all-knowing Wikipedia says that the natural home of olives is the Mediterranean region. But Delhi is 4000