City Hangout – Meena Bazar, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - December 24, 20250 The Walled City encyclopedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It translates to fish in Sanskrit, love in Pashto, and glaze in Persian. Meena, the word. Meena Bazar in Old Delhi overkills the senses with its stupendously immoderate range of stuff on sale. This afternoon, a stroll through the market’s many lanes shows the following: kurtis, jharfanus, face mirrors, cut off machines, sun shades, shararas, lamps, ladies suits, pressure cookers, sandals, topis, shoes, air compressors, waterproof watches, neembu pani, haleem, mixers, room heaters, woollen jackets, vertical high pressure pumps, chicken biryani, hookahs, tala-chabhi, table fans, shawls, cotton candy, undergarments, carbide tips, mufflers, barbie dolls, burqas, handbags, toy cars, dahi badas, blankets, selfie stands, leather belts, sandals, kebabs, carpets, milk pumps, dry fruit,
City Hangout – Ordinary Bench, Shivaji Stadium Bus Terminal Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - December 12, 20251 In the changing light of day. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] No clipped grass. No flower beds. No monuments. And yet, this singular bench in central Delhi’s Shivaji Stadium bus terminal always remains saturated in tranquil sakoon and shanti, a thing typical of an idyllic park bench. Before you risk reading further, dear reader, here’s a disclosure. The precise locale of our story is too ordinary. That said, shouldn’t the ordinary be also celebrated? This afternoon, all is silent around the bench. An elderly gent is sitting alone with a large yellow envelope bearing the words “MRI report,” printed in bold. He is motionless, gazing straight ahead. The afternoon sunshine is streaming through the leaves of an adjacent pilkhan tree, falling on
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 – Graveyard Epitaphs, Around Town Hangouts Life by The Delhi Walla - December 4, 2025December 4, 20250 Grave words. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A grave has limited dimensions, and yet possesses a sentimental scope without a limit—to the person whose loved one lies buried in the grave. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Delhi is a city of graves. Some neighbourhoods stand on former graveyards, such as Kaka Nagar. There is even a 5-star hotel standing upon an ex-qabristan, (but we won’t name it!). One city locality takes the cake—it is called Mohalla Qabristan. Here’s a survey of select graves spread across Delhi’s many graveyards. To be more precise, this is a tribute not to those graves, but to lines inscribed on the graves. These carefully considered words memorialise our fellow citizens who once walked
City Hangout – Sunday Book Bazar’s King, Mahila Haat Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - November 27, 2025November 28, 20250 Reporting from a Delhi institution. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here’s a citizen’s frank verdict on X about Delhi’s iconic Sunday Book Bazar—“This place is more of a hype… you see heaps of random books without any indexation done by the seller. If you have to buy real classics then you need to go to a reputed bookstore.” Indeed, what will Delhi be without its reputed bookstores; the reputation earned after years of hard work and sustained excellence. And let’s face it, the open-air Sunday Book Bazar is messy, loaded with tens of thousands of used books that you might refuse to accept even if offered for free. Even so, the market held every week in Mahila Haat exhibition ground (near
City Hangout – Jia Sarai Village, Near IIT Delhi Hangouts Regions by The Delhi Walla - October 24, 20250 One of Delhi’s 369 villages. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The universe here is idyllic. The lanes are litter-free, the nooks are quiet, groceries are amply stocked, multi-stories look homely, the overall ambiance removed from the anxieties of city life… and it all is contained within chaotic Delhi. Jia Sarai is one of the many urban villages in the national capital. The patterns of its daily life are set by a gentry that is youthful, but which doesn’t display the brashness linked with youth. The young men and women living here tend to be studious, and indeed are extremely focused on their career. Almost every village home sells its services as a boarding house for these ambitious outstation students preparing for
City Walk – Katra Sheikh Ranjha, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 5, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Heer & Ranjha are among the many star-crossed protagonists of our tragic love fables. But Katra Sheikh Ranjha in Old Delhi has nothing to do with love, passion or heartbreak. Unless you find romance in nuts and bolts. The lane teems with shops selling these mechanical fasteners. Take Ganpati House. It specialises in “all kinds of machine screws, nuts, bolts, self taping screws, spring washers, stainless steel screws and brass screws.” Such is the irony. Once the world had a Ranjha bursting with mohabbat-pyar. Today the world has a Sheikh Ranjha bursting with machine-parts. That said, the place has its own idiosyncratic poetry. A beautifully illustrated hoarding of Bhola Ram &
City Monument – CP’s White Columns Part 3, Connaught Place Hangouts Landmarks by The Delhi Walla - October 3, 20250 On a colonial-era legacy. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sure, this is easier than counting the stars. But still, it is something—to manually count the columns of Delhi’s iconic Connaught Place (CP). The white colonial-era columns constitute CP’s signature persona. They support the ceilings of its many colonnades. Identical in shape and height, the stately columns line the market arcades of the Inner and Outer Circles, as well as the corridors that link the two circles. Last to last week, the first part of this series conducted a count of the Outer Circle columns. Last week was the turn of Inner Circle columns. This week, the concluding agenda is to count the columns of CP’s intervening corridors that link the Inner and
City Hangout – Dancing Girl, National Museum Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - September 30, 20250 An enigmatic citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Most tourists to Paris strive to see the Eiffel, and the Mona Lisa. The tower is grand; and the painting, a museum exhibit, is profoundly enigmatic. Most tourists to Delhi strive to see the Qutub. This tower too is grand. On the other hand, a particularly striking museum exhibit in the city fails to command the Mona Lisa’s wild popularity, though it is as enigmatic. Nevertheless, the Dancing Girl is one of the most celebrated souvenirs in the National Museum’s massive collection, representing various epochs of the Indian past. Last week, a university professor was briefly arrested for allegedly stealing the Dancing Girl’s replica from the museum. Sculptured in bronze 4,000 years ago, the Dancing
City Walk – Paper Market, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - September 28, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Streets here are littered with the usual civic litter, but also with paper shavings. We know the source of the latter—the cramped shops packed with bundles of paper sheets. This is Old Delhi’s Paper Market. Yet, you cannot locate the name on the Walled City map. The place exists, and the place doesn’t exist. Paper Market is a generic name encompassing a number of lanes and alleys of Chawri Bazar, mostly centered around Barshahbulla Chowk. But there is no chosen street, or a collection of streets, that is formally labelled as the Paper Market. The fact is asserted by shopkeeper Ranveer Singh. The paper merchant explains he essentially trades in papers that are