City Poetry – Ghalib in Persian, Delhi & Isfahan City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - April 2, 2026April 2, 20260 Persia is not far. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The news from Iran continues to be distressing. In Delhi, we are geographically removed from the war’s direct reach. Yet Iran is never far. Something of its cultural spirit lingers in this city, including in the work of Delhi’s great poet. To Mirza Ghalib, the Irani bhasha was the language of ambition. In the 19th century Delhi of his time, Persian commanded elite status, like the English in post-independent India or French in Tsarist Russia. Ghalib started by writing poems in both homegrown Urdu and Persian. Over time, he was drawn to the exactness and range of Persian—qualities he apparently didn’t find in Urdu. In all, Ghalib wrote about 2,000 couplets in
City Poetry – Jonaki Ray’s War Poem, Alaknanda City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - March 27, 20260 And still the flowers bloom. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Wars are raging in West Asia and Ukraine. And yet, flowers continue to bloom—even along city roadsides. (Sometimes surreal sights of discarded bouquets are encountered in most unusual sites—see photo, snapped in Gurugram’s Jacobpura). Indeed, beyond the news headlines, our lives in Delhi are going on (relatively) unaltered, for now. So is the case with poet Jonaki Ray, who commutes four days a week to her day-job at an IT multinational in Noida. Recently, she moved to an apartment in South Delhi’s Alaknanda, close to Jahapanah City Forest. She has yet to unpack all her boxes of books, but she has already written her first poem in the new
City Poetry – Ritu Faridabadi’s Verses City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - February 3, 20260 Poetry in the city. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Ritu Chowdhry began writing poetry while growing up in Kanpur. After her marriage, she took the name Ritu Asthana and moved to Faridabad in the Delhi region, where she has lived for over two decades. Over time, her writing and her identity as a poet became closely tied to the city. Today, she signs her work as Ritu Asthana “Ruhi” Faridabadi. This name reflects her personal and geographical sense of belonging. “Life for a girl, when she is living with her parents, is simpler,” she says this afternoon, over an encounter in a literary academy, where the hushed hall is filled with portraits of dead writers and out-of-use typewriters. Ritu observes
City Poetry – Asif, Gali Choori Wallan City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - January 15, 20260 Barbershop Homer. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Every evening, after dining with their respective families at home, a handful of men in a certain part of Old Delhi gather in Gali Choori Wallan, and settle down until far beyond the midnight at shop no. 530. It is a barbershop. These men don’t come here for a haircut. They sit here silently, partaking in the companionship of each other’s presence, as well as gazing at the hectic night life of the street outside. They also lend their ears to Asif, the barbershop’s barber, whenever the latter is bitten by the muse. For Asif is also a shaayar. The soft-spoken gent is a poet of the Homeric sort, in the sense
City Poetry – Ronak Singh Bhasin’s Poem on 31 December City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - December 31, 20250 Sense of an ending. [Photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world is, according to a saying, only the size of each man’s head. Delhi has millions of people, and today in the final day of 2025, each of us millions of citizens must be making sense of the concluding year through our own creative and messy ways. One such citizen is Ronak Singh Bhasin, who came of age in West Delhi’s Hari Nagar. (Years ago, he had an insta handle describing himself as Pagal Kavi, or mad poet, which he jettisoned after outgrowing that persona). To mark the year-end, he has especially composed a poem for us. Ronak suggests that he has been gradually getting wary of this life and all that
City Poetry – Poet Ghalib’s 228th Birth Anniversary, Ghalib’s Tomb City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - December 27, 20250 On the passing of Vinod Kumar Shukla. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is actor Salman Khan’s birthday. It is also actor Timothée Chalamet’s birthday. It is also the birth anniversary of Delhi’s greatest poet. The Delhi Walla exploits this day to celebrate our Mirza Ghalib exclusively through numbers. The accompanying photo was snapped some afternoons ago, just as internationally renowned photographer Nicholas Vreeland (also a Buddhist monk) was sighted visiting Ghalib’s marble tomb in central Delhi. Plus, a shoutout to Ghalib Academy secretary Aqil Ahmad, kind enough to double-check some of these figures. 27/12/1797 Date of Ghalib’s birth. He was born in Agra. 1 Number of Mughal emperors in whose court Ghalib was most memorably associated as a poet. The emperor at the
City Poetry – Shuklji’s Reader, Indian Coffee House City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - December 26, 20250 On the passing of Vinod Kumar Shukla. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The year is ending with a profound loss. Writer Vinod Kumar Shukla died on Tuesday at a hospital in Raipur, Chattisgarh, aged 88. Among many readers who felt a personal sense of loss at his passing is a young poet in Delhi. Mukul lives in Mayur Vihar Phase 3. Over an exchange on WhatsApp, he talked of his attachment to the late writer, especially referring to his poem Hatasha Se Ek Vyakti Baith Gaya Tha. He went on gushing respectfully about the departed poet: “The way Shuklji drops profundities in the plain sight of ordinary language. The way his sentences, familiar at first sight, move and bend into
Julia Child’s Delhi – Emily Dickinson’s Black Cake, Central Delhi City Poetry Food Julia Child's Delhi by The Delhi Walla - December 10, 2025December 10, 20250 From a poetry lover's kitchen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] In the 1800s, when our Mirza Ghalib was still alive, there lived another poet. She didn’t share her writing with the world. After her death, the hundreds and hundreds of poems she had written were discovered hidden under her bed. Today, she is considered one of the greatest literary figures of her time. Dear reader, you of course know that we are referring to poet Emily Dickinson, who lived thousands of miles away from Ghalib’s Dilli, in the American town of Amherst. Today is ED’s 195th birthday. Each year, her fans across the world celebrate by baking a cake that she would often make for family and friends. This weekend, an
City Poetry – Gulnaaz’s Darcy Poem, Delhi University City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - November 24, 20250 "I hate Darcy." [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He’s handsome and rich, and full of pride. She’s intelligent and not rich, and full of prejudice. Much misunderstandings follow before they unite in matrimony. The man is Fitzwilliam Darcy. The woman is… oh well, first meet another woman. She says, “I hate Darcy.” Gulnaaz is a Delhi University (DU) student. Dear readers, we may not harbour such intense sentiments for this Darcy, but he certainly is more intimate to thousands of DU students. Darcy happens to be the hero of Pride and Prejudice. The novel is in the university’s first-year English Literature curriculum. It was written by the great Jane Austen of England—the coming December marks her 250th birth anniversary. Literature scholar
City Poetry – Jasbir Chatterjee’s Pollution Poem, Vikas Puri City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - November 18, 20250 On sore throat. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sore throat? You have it too! Must be the city’s bad air. Whatever, early in the month, as Delhi was beset by extreme pollution, customer relations manager Jasbir Chatterjee was forced to take three days’ leave due to “respiratory problems.” It was deeply frustrating, because she is very careful of saving her office leaves, to utilise them for truly important family occasions. Thankfully, she has recovered, resuming her long commutes to work at a commercial vehicles showroom in Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. This weekend afternoon, at her residence in Vikas Puri, over a tasty fish curry prepared by husband, Sukhangshu, she reads aloud a poem she wrote on the disruption caused to