The people of the aquarium. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Such delicate figure, such slender arms and all of her essence so perfectly condensed into her long white pearl necklace. And look at the woman there. Her white hair are fit enough for a Balkan queen. And that black woman in a pure black dress that leaves enough gap at a strategic spot for us to admire her bare black shoulder. All these marvelous people are so different from us. It is like watching exotic fish in a glass aquarium. One evening The Delhi Walla attended a party to celebrate the German Unity Day at the German ambassador’s residence. His sprawling lawns in the diplomatic enclave of Shantipath were a fairy world

Entry without the I-card. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The intruder entered without making any sound. One evening The Delhi Walla witnessed a daring act of trespassing. The intruder sneaked into the highly secured Mausam Bhawan in Central Delhi. This sensitive installation in the heart of the national capital annually allots floods and droughts to different parts of the country. It is India Meteorological Department. The intruder hoodwinked the blue-uniformed security guard by walking past him with the (misplaced) confidence of a weather forecaster. The next obstacle was a board, saying, “Please display your identity card.” The intruder ignored the request and went on. That was the last time the intruder was seen. While one cannot say with certainty about any sinister plot

On the novel's 20th year. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Everyone is reading The God of Small Things in Ayemenem. This village in the backwaters of Kerala is the setting of the aforementioned book. Arundhati Roy’s first novel will turn 20 next year and The Delhi Walla is in Ayemenem to celebrate the anniversary in advance. One afternoon I stopped 20 citizens of Ayemenem in the streets, and even knocked on the doors of their houses, requesting them to pose with my copy of the novel. Nobody refused. In the Country of Small Things 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. (this photo is by an Ayemenem walla)

The published author with his new book. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Is there a more intensely anxious feeling than to be a published writer and enter a bookshop to gaze upon one’s own book that has newly arrived in the world? One afternoon The Delhi Walla sees author Ruchir Sharma enter Bahrisons Booksellers in Khan Market. He is in a blue shirt and white pants—this is also the color combination of the cover of his most recent book, The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in a Post-Crisis World. The bookshop’s Mithilesh Singh greets the author and requests him to sign the copies of the Rise and Fall. The New York-based writer stands beside a lectern-like thing and

The silvery stretches. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Yesterday, it was a blue sky. Today, it’s embroidered in silver. One day before the start of the Islamic month of Ramzan, the sky above the Matia Mahal street in Old Delhi was screened with silver jhaalars. The Delhi Walla saw a man climbing atop a ladder to install the decoration. The jhaalars were made to entwine around the thick power cables that dominates the area's aesthetics. The Matia Mahal street starts from Jama Masjid and goes all the way to Chitli Qabar Chowk. It is lined with classic eateries like Kalan Sweets, Al Jawahar Hotel, Karim’s Restaurant, Aslam Chicken and Shireen Bhawan mithai shop . Just who will care to look up at the

Meow. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sufi lives in a monument-facing apartment in South Delhi’s Mehrauli. She shares it with Vidya Rao who is a human. Sufi is very old now. She spends her days reading books about fellow cats. These days she is engaged with Carl Van Vechten's The Tiger in the House. When the reading gets too oppressive, she makes small talk with Ms Rao. And if she is too exhausted to hold a conversation, she asks Ms Rao to stage a music concert just for her in the drawing room. Sufi doesn’t like it when Ms Rao leaves her to perform Thumri songs for fellow humans in venues where she herself would be denied entry for no

A wife's legacy. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The house is like a museum celebrating the life of Tyeb Mehta, one of contemporary India’s greatest painters. One afternoon The Delhi Walla entered the home of Sakina Mehta, the late artist's wife. Ms Mehta lives with her daughter, Himani, and her son-in-law, Vaseem, in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I. Every wall in the apartment is adorned with at least one work by her husband. Ms Mehta guided me to select parts of the house. Family souvenirs 1. 2. 2a. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Scenes of silence. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The blue-robed chairs are neatly arranged around tables that are covered with white clothes. This must be the setting for a formal sit-down dinner but there is no one. One evening The Delhi Walla enters a public hall in Pahari Bhojla, a congested Walled City locality. The street is humming with streets sounds of the evening, but inside--utter peace. The hall has roughly-carved pillars; parts of the walls are fashioned into arched designs. It is summer, yet it is not warm. Low-hanging ceiling fans are standing still. The staircase go past paan-stained walls. Large steel tubs, filled with clean dinner plates, are lying discretely in one corner. There are also black water tanks. This

A bookish excursion. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] She was in a white top and she looked very happy. One evening The Delhi Walla saw a beautiful curly-haired woman entering Faqir Chand & Sons bookstore on Khan Market's Front Lane. She wandered around briefly around the stacks of new and old books. She also flashed a series of smiles all around her. She then exited and continued to walk on the market’s Front Lane. The woman then entered Bahrisons Booksellers. She stood in front of a shelf and ran her fingers across the spines of a few paperbacks. She did not buy any book. Next, the woman headed towards the market’s Middle Lane. She opened a glass door on the right side

A great landmark's afterlife. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once upon a time one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world was in the most beautiful part of beautiful Paris. La Hune, next to the historic Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, closed down on 14 June, 2015, due to depleting business. The Delhi Walla was there around that time to capture its last days. (I wrote about it here.) Almost a year later I again stepped inside what used to be La Hune. It now belongs to YellowKorner gallery and is a house of photographs in its new avatar as a bookstore-gallery. The coffee-table books are on the ground floor and limited editions of art images are on the first floor. The new occupants are