The tragic city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Delhi Walla knows an unpublished poet in Srinagar, Kashmir. The great September flood in the city spared her life but not some of her most beloved possessions. The books she collected over so many years from the second-hand bookstores of so many cities and countries have been destroyed. The hand-woven carpet in her drawing room has been ruined. Her grandmother’s pheran (tunic) has gone away with the floodwater. It was embroidered with silver thread. She said that Srinagar would never be the same again. But her city has witnessed worse things in its long life, and it will return to its cheerless exquisiteness. I visited Srinagar in 2012. The following images

Delhi’s bookworms. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some of the most beautiful sights that The Delhi Walla sees in Delhi are not of monuments or gardens but of people reading in public places. I have seen a butcher reading a book in Turkman Gate, a rag-picker reading a book in Chawri Bazaar, a commuter reading a book in a bus shelter, a security guard reading a book outside an ATM, and a beggar reading a book in a Sufi shrine. These lucky citizens have discovered the most creative route to escape from the city. Shh, they're reading 1. 2. 3. 4. 4a. 5. 6. 7. 7a. 8. 8a. 9. 10. 11. 11a. 12. 13. 14. 14a. 15.

Searching lost time. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Chanakya Cinema in Chankayapuri shut down in 2007 – its building was demolished two years later. The old Sangam Cinema in RK Puram too was razed. The colonial-era Plaza in Connaught Place has been converted by the PVR Cinemas chain into a multiplex. BIG Cinemas, a theater chain of Reliance MediaWorks Ltd, acquired the nearby Odeon in 2009. The oldest British-era theater in Connaught Place, Regal, which was built in 1932, continues to exist in its original form. For now. Note: If you have old cinema tickets, please contact me at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com. Rest in peace 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Theft in journalism. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] It is a great pleasure for The Delhi Walla to be a writer and photographer. But it is very frustrating when a media group steals your work. The June 16 2014 issue of the country’s biggest selling weekly, India Today, published a photo of Delhi’s St Stephen’s College on page 74. It is a panoramic scene of the college and its students; the magazine displayed the photo in a pathetically small-sized box. I had taken this picture in 2012. It had taken me quite an effort. As a photographer I would have allowed this hard-earned shot to be used in print only as a big spread. That is just one of the contentions here. The esteemed magazine

Text me. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One day in 2013 The Delhi Walla's Sony Xperia stopped working. It felt as if my wife had died. The touch-screen phone had everything I would need if I were to be stranded on a deserted island — my Gmail, my Google, my six Jane Austen e-novels, and my contact list of more than 500 phone numbers. The most crushing thing was the loss of the hundreds of special text messages I had exchanged and saved over the years with some very special people. Many a lonely evening I’d relived old memories rereading those precious SMSes. Now, the archive of my recent history was lost. The first evening following the tragedy, I walked, and walked, in

The Delhi coffee table. [Text and photos of photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In order to feel the intimate life of Delhiites, The Delhi Walla is going from house to house, requesting people to show their family photos. The project will never end. Here is the fourth instalment. This album belongs to Haji Faiyazuddin, who lives in Old Delhi's Chawri Bazaar, close to Jama Masjid. Scenes of the past 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

A few short stories. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Little happens in the short stories of Alice Munro. Her people consists of good women trying to make sense of hateship, frienship, courtship, loveship and marriage. Delhi is not Ms Munro's Canada but The Delhi Walla often sees her women in the city. 1y. 1d. 1. 2. 2a. 3. 5. 6. 8. 9. 10. 10a. 10b. 11. 12.

The ruins-of-an-empire mindset. [Text by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is not our Chandni Chowk. The Delhi Walla is in possession of some old photos of the city, which were taken after the downfall of Mughals in 1857. One of them is of the fabled promenade. It looks like a place of cold beauty. There is no crowd. Life lies still. The avenue is divided along its entire length by a row of trees. A few huts are clustered at the forefront. One side of the bazaar is taken over by a dense congregation of havelis, the residences of the nobility. The Red Fort ramparts stand forlorn like the boundary of an entombed paradise. This quiet world before us seems to have been woven out

The Delhi coffee table. [Text and photos of photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In order to feel the intimate life of Delhiites, The Delhi Walla is going from house to house, requesting people to show their family photos. The project will never end. Here is the third instalment. This album belongs to the house of Senguptas, who lived in north Delhi's Civil Lines. I found it in the house of a rag-picker in Kashmere Gate. The name and address was hand-written on the back of one of the photos, along with the year in which they were presumably taken. It was 1943. The photos are so fragile that they crumble on touch. Scenes of their history 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The Delhi coffee table. [Text and photos of photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] In order to feel the intimate life of Delhiites, The Delhi Walla is going from house to house, requesting people to show their family photos. The project will never end. Here is the second instalment. This album belongs to the house of Dehlvis, who live in Nizamuddin East, close to Humayun's Tomb. Scenes of our loved ones 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.