City Obituary – Raza Remembers Husain Culture General by The Delhi Walla - June 10, 2011June 11, 20110 On Maqbool Fida Husain’s death. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] On June 9, 2011, a few hours after the death of painter Maqbool Fida Husain in London, The Delhi Walla sat down with Syed Haider Raza at his first floor studio near Aurobindo Market, south Delhi. Both painters were early members of the Bombay-based Progressive Artists’ Group, a set of young avant-garde artists that revolutionized and reshaped the Indian art scene and brought it to the world's notice. Mr Husain died at 95. Mr Raza is 89. Seated in a wheel chair, Mr Raza says, “Since one week I was aware that Husain was seriously unwell.” His voice is feeble and I have to sit very close to him to understand
City Culture – The Sufi Music Crisis, Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah Culture Faith by The Delhi Walla - May 20, 2011May 20, 20112 The struggle for the soul of qawwali. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Dama dam mast qalandar. Qawwali, Islam’s sacred Sufi music offered in the shrines of the Indian subcontinent, is facing a moment of unease. It is best reflected in the gentle discord between the two leading qawwal families in Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, one of Sufism’s most important pilgrim centres. The rivalry illustrates how the 750-year-old tradition that strives to bring divine rapture to listeners is struggling to adapt to a secular world. At 84, Meraj Ahmed Nizami, the patriarch of Nizami Khusro Bandhu family, is one of the few classical qawwals left in India. “He renders Persian Sufi verses most fluently in the old tarz, or melodies,” says Farida
Photo Essay – Raavan Spotting, Tagore Garden Culture Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - October 17, 2010October 17, 20100 The making of the devil. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] He will die. Again. On the evening of October 17, 2010, the effigy of Raavan, the 10-headed demon king of Lanka, will burn down with much cheer and firecrackers in the neighbourhood parks of Delhi. Raavan burning is the final act of Ramlila, the 10-day play on the exploits of Bhagwan Ram, which takes place every fall during the Dusshera festival. Based on the Hindu epic Ramayan, the play ends in the victory of good (read Ram) over evil (read Raavan). Most Raavan effigies in Delhi are made in Tagore Garden, in the western part of the metropolis. The Delhi Walla went there a day before Raavan’s D-day. Below the metro
City Culture – Ramlila, August 15 Ground Culture Faith Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - October 14, 2010October 14, 20103 The annual multi-starrer Hindu blockbuster. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Totally Shakespearean. It has love, jealousy, greed, lies, betrayal, revenge, war, death and redemption. Ramlila, the 10-day play on the exploits of Bhagwan Ram, which takes place every fall during the Dusshera festival, is a mix of King Lear (exile), Macbeth (jealousy), The Merchant of Venice (swayamvar) and Henry VI (war). Tonight, on entering the green room of Luv Kush Ramlila, taking place in the highly guarded August 15 Ground that faces the Mughal-era Red Fort, The Delhi Walla find actors in different stages of make-up. Queen Kaikeyi is getting her eyes lined with kohl. Her wicked maid Manthara – the actor Sanjay Sharma dressed in a saree and showing
City Secret – LPs & Album Covers, Meena Bazaar Culture Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - August 19, 2010August 19, 20103 The old world melodies. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Overshadowed by Old Delhi's Jama Masjid, amidst scampering goats and the air redolent with the smell of milky chai and mutton curry, stands a nondescript shop. The unimpressive exterior belies the uniqueness of this establishment that boasts of more than 50,000 music records. Newspaper-wrapped piles of LPs, 78 and 56 RPMs sit on shelves that creak. Hemmed in by antique gramophones and faded Mohammed Rafi photographs, Syed Akbar Shah, the owner, spends the market hours waiting for masjid azans and music connoisseurs. “My place attracts collectors, not customers,” he says. Only a true collector can wade through the narrow lanes of Meena Bazaar—lined with shacks selling mostly machine tools—where the midday chaos resembles
City Life – Emma Spotting in Delhi Culture General by The Delhi Walla - August 7, 2010August 7, 20105 Searching for a Jane Austen's heroine. [Text and picture by Mayank Austen Soofi] In 1815, she was handsome, clever and rich in Highbury, England. In 2010, she is bitchy, sexy and rich somewhere in upmarket South Delhi. The English novelist Jane Austen has come to our hot dusty city. An adaptation of her novel Emma, the new Bollywood chick flick Aisha shifts the focus to Emma-like girls in Delhi. “I’ll play a typical south Delhi brat with a Modern School background,” Sonam Kapoor, the screen Aisha told The Delhi Walla last year. “You will see me jogging in Lodhi Garden and shopping in Select Citywalk.” Where else in the Capital will you spot Dilli ki Emma? Gossiping in a GK-I café? Splurging
City Life – Jane Austen’s Guide to Delhi Culture General by The Delhi Walla - July 16, 2010July 16, 20106 The Delhi of her novels. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] The Bollywood film Aisha, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma, will be released in August, 2010. It is set in Delhi. Looking forward to seeing the movie, The Delhi Walla discovers that the 18th-century English novelist had hinted at various places of Delhi in her writings. Don’t believe me? Take a look at excerpts from her six drawing-room novels: “I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.” Jane Austen in a Blueline bus “To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” Jane Austen in Lodhi Garden “One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other." Jane
City Life – One Year of Legalised Gay Sex Culture Life Photo Essays by The Delhi Walla - July 2, 2010July 3, 20105 Celebrations in Jantar Mantar. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the new Delhi. It happened in public. Men kissed men. Women hugged women. And cops just watched. On the evening of July 2, 2010, a year after the Delhi High Court’s landmark verdict that legalized gay sex, hundreds of people gathered in Jantar Mantar to celebrate the anniversary. The High Court had overturned the Section 377 of the Indian penal code, a relic from the colonial-era. It was party mood in Jantar Mantar. People were cheering, singing and dancing. A few men were dressed in sarees. Some were wearing t-shirts bearing provocative images (two London bobbies kissing), or words ("Unfuck the world"). The curious bystanders watched these happy people as
City Culture – The Band of Brothers, Hauz Khas Ruins Culture Monuments by The Delhi Walla - June 9, 2010June 24, 20101 The 7 idiots. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Their shoulders are swinging softly, their feet are tapping on the stone floor and some of them are shutting their eyes in intense passion. This is a group of seven – Mohammed Shamim, Amit Sharma, Prateek Malik, Riaz Ahmad, Nipun Sharma, Yash Saini and Shanky Goel. The boys are singing in a hush as if not to disturb the ghost of Feroze Shah Tughlaq, the 14th century ruler who is buried in the tomb, around which they are standing. The Delhi Walla is in Hauz Khas, the monument complex in south Delhi. The boys are students of XIIth standard in the nearby General Raj’s School. They are shooting a documentary, a part of
City Culture – How I Got Drunk and Lost My Virginity in Nizamuddin Dargah Culture Faith by The Delhi Walla - May 28, 2010May 28, 20109 Trance music in Delhi’s most famous sufi shrine. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Every Thursday evening music lovers gather at Nizamuddin dargah, the shrine of Delhi's 14th century sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. They wait for the Nizami Khusro Bandhu, a family singing here since 750 years, to settle down with their harmoniums and tablas. As Ustad Meraj, the senior qawwal, leads the singers into sufi love songs, the mood goes electric. More exciting than ticketed concerts, you sit right alongside the singers and watch their eyes popping out, arms slicing the air, and faces dissolving into momentary madness. Beware, you too could end up possessed in a feverish frenzy of longing and sensuousness. This is an incredible out-of-the-body experience. It