The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was the day when the unthinkable became the thinkable and the impossible really happened. One sweltering afternoon novelist Arundhati Roy was seen inaugurating a Banarasi saree showroom in Old Delhi. And here we are talking about one of those elusive novelists who is hardly seen in society. But if Donald Trump can become the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for America’s president, then why can’t the author of The God of Small Things be the chief guest at the opening bash of Jhinjhanvi's Banarsi Emporium in Chitli Qabar Bazaar? (Actually, there was a literature connection here. The showroom’s co-owner, Naseer Jhinjhanvi Alvi, is the son of late poet Musheer Jhinjhanvi. The shop’s other partner

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There was so much room to breathe during the forgettable launch of Tavleen Singh’s book a few weeks ago at the India Habitat Center. The veteran journalist with 233K followers on Twitter is a passionate devotee of the current regime and there were barely any people in the venue. There was almost no room to breathe at Rana Ayyub’s memorable book launch. It ended up being the biggest event of the season. One recent evening The Delhi Walla attended the unveiling of Ms Ayyub’s book Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up. The young journalist with mere 98.8 K followers on Twitter is a passionate critic of the current regime and the

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A blue shade covered her bare shoulders. The delicate cloth languidly fell over her red gown. And her blue necklace resembled a late-night dream. The Israeli ambassador’s beautiful partner, the slender Ditza Froim, was going through the biggest trial of the year. She, along with ambassador Daniel Carmon, was about to shake hands with hundreds of guests. One evening The Delhi Walla tiptoed into the Israel National Day celebrations at the Kamal Mahal Hall in Hotel ITC Maurya. The ambassador and his partner stood at the entrance as a long queue formed at the door. Each invitee had to personally congratulate the couple for the country’s 68th Independence Day. The ambassador went through the

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was a scandal and it was very distressing. Only a few people were there to celebrate the iconic Tavleen Singh, the bestselling author and journalist with 228K followers on Twitter. One evening, The Delhi Walla was at the amphitheater at India Habitat Center to attend the launch of Ms Singh’s new book, India’s Broken Tryst. The venue was half-empty. The embarrassed organisers took a long time to call Ms Singh on stage, after waiting for people who never came. News anchor Barkha Dutt was nowhere to be seen though Ms Singh had dutifully attended her book launch a few months ago (and she had even tweeted about it). Indian Express’s editor-in-chief,

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was a countdown to the nuclear war. Two superstar Indian journalists ended up almost within an inch of annihilation. The Delhi Walla watched the spectacle with bated breath one evening during the opening of the photo exhibition of author William Dalrymple at Vadhera Art Gallery in South Delhi’s Defence Colony. This is how it happened. Manu Joseph--who quit the editorship of the Open news magazine after the arrival of the new Prime Minister in Delhi--came within kissing distance of his successor, S. Prasannarajan--who overnight turned the magazine from being anti-Prime Minister to pro-Prime Minister. As these important and honorable men found themselves very close to each other, their faces were emptied of all expressions.

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Everybody who is somebody in Delhi is Sadia Dehlvi's friend. That doesn’t mean that the author of Sufism: The Heart of Islam does not have important friends outside Delhi. One recent evening The Delhi Walla gatecrashed a party that Ms Dehlvi had hosted at her drawing room in Hazrat Nizamuddin East to celebrate her women friends from across the world. The fortunate few included a poet from Saudi Arabia (Nimah Nawwab), a Syrian human rights activist from Canada (Afra Jalabi) and a Sufi poet from Pakistan (Sumbal Iftikhar). The domestic guests were some of the capital’s very important names. Delhi’s former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit arrived with her sister, the graceful Rama Dhawan.

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It was a delightful gathering of beautiful people in a beautiful palace in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. One afternoon in Venice The Delhi Walla attended Somewhere in Delhi: 17 Prints on Hand-Woven Khadi Muslin, an exhibition by Venetian designer Anna Gerotto and Delhi-based blogger Mayank Austen Soofi (me!). A selection of Mr Soofi’s photographs that he had originally put up on his Facebook account were transposed by Ms Gerotto into the fragile texture of hand-woven muslin. The soft fabrics hang down languidly from the high ceilings of Palazzo Michiel del Brusà, a Renaissance-era palace that stands beside Grand Canal and is within an eye-view of the great Rialto bridge. It

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The man from the East was full of himself. He was the only oriental face--in flesh and blood, that is. There were also quite a few such faces to be seen on the soft-to-touch fabrics that hang elegantly from centuries-old wooden beams. The Delhi Walla was in the opening of Somewhere in Delhi: 17 Printings on Hand-Woven Khadi Muslin, an exhibition by designer Anna Gerotto and Indian blogger and photographer Mayank Austen Soofi (that’s me!). The evening was hosted inside a former asylum for the insane in San Servolo, an outlying island of this watery city. The panoramic windows of the stately hall looked to the signature towers of Piazza San Marco;

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There were more people at his remembrance meet than when he was here in flesh and blood last winter. One evening The Delhi Walla was at the Oxford Book Store in Connaught Place to mark the passing away of the elderly Urdu author Intizar Husain. It so happened--some would say conveniently--that poet Nida Fazli died a day earlier, just in time for author Rakhshanda Jalil, the host, to stretch the agenda to talk of him, too. In fact, Urdu professor Ali Javed fancied his yellowing copy of Fazli’s prose work to be part of the dress code. It did not leave his hands for a moment. Also spotted: writer and filmmaker Sohail

The party secrets. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Author Patrick French is very, very handsome. Even so, that was not the only reason why one chilly evening in Delhi a multitude of women and men wanted to be him. Mr French was to stage a conversation with Canadian writer Margaret Atwood at the Stein Auditorium in India Habitat Center. This meant that Mr French was to sit within a touching distance of the legendary novelist who, at 76, might not again take the risk to visit the world’s most polluted city. The Delhi Walla reached the venue two hours in advance to enjoy the privilege of gazing at the lovely faces of the two luckiest people on earth: law student Gayatri