City Life – Ren Basera Night Shelters, Around Town

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The world's a ren basera. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Ren implies night-time in Hindi, basera means shelter for transitory rest. Ren basera translates to shelter for the night. It is also a name for government-supported porta cabins and camps that come up across the city during winter months to protect the homeless citizens from extreme cold. These roadside ren basera tents are usually identifiable by their conical tip. One such basera stands against the backdrop of a tower-in-progress. See right photo. Another basera stands a short walk away from its aforementioned counterpart, beside a pilkhan tree. (In summer months of May and June, the area’s homeless citizens often congregate under this same tree to shelter from the deadly heatwaves.)

City Anniversary – Jane Austen’s 250th Happy Birthday, Daryaganj

by The Delhi Walla - 0

She wrote for Delhi people too. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Let us be grateful to our scholars. They undertake the hard labour of analysing the joyful novels of Jane Austen under the probing lens of very many isms—colonialism, feminism, etc. Their brainy chore helps us, readers, to better understand our beloved writer. That said, all the six complete novels of the English novelist are essentially love stories, and each ends with at least one wedding. Yet, not a single novel gives a detailed description of the wedding. Today, the world is celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th birth anniversary, and one way to offer homage to the great novelist is by compensating for that perplexing gap in her books. Here’s the

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Artist Mohini, Connaught Place

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This evening, in a Connaught Place corridor, Artist Mohini is sitting at her regular spot. She in the midst of a drawing assignment, even as her two daughters hover about her. Half an hour ago, the friendly woman was commissioned to sketch the portrait of a person whose photo was sent to her on her mobile’s WhatsApp. As she continues to draw, her concentrated gaze shuttling between the mobile’s screen and the drawing chart, many passersby slow down to look with a degree of awe at the work-in-progress. Some are even clicking the artist’s photo. But her concentration remains unbreachable. She finishes the portrait in an hour, after which she graciously

City Walk – Gali Matia Mahal, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 1

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some 400 years ago, Shahjahan founded the Walled City of Shahjahanabad, today known as Old Delhi. Waiting for the completion of his Red Fort, the Mughal Emperor meantime built a palatial mahal out of earth as his temporary residence. The palace was called Matia Mahal—matia being derived from Hindustani word mitti for earth/mud. Today, the palace is nowhere to be seen, but the site on which it stood continues to be known as Matia Mahal. If you recall, dear reader, a version of these words appeared on this space a few weeks ago, as part of The Delhi Walla's “This way to” series, aimed at creating a definitive encyclopaedia of every Old

City Hangout – Ordinary Bench, Shivaji Stadium Bus Terminal

by The Delhi Walla - 1

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 Life – Bungalows of Gurugram, Sushant Lok and Other Places

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Built heritage, forever fluid. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The house must have had two storeys. But the upper storey rooms seem to be gone, except for a few leftover walls. A pair of labourers are standing up there, relentlessly hammering on the floor, right beside their feet. The building is meanwhile cloaked in a thin layer of dust. Yet another residence is being pulled down. Greetings from Sushant Lok. As things stand, many stand-alone houses in the so-called Millennium City of Gurugram have been replaced by sleek apartment complexes. Some old single-storey bungalows continue to survive though. A few of these survivors lie deserted in a ruinous state, probably waiting for their turn to be erased from the face

Julia Child’s Delhi – Emily Dickinson’s Black Cake, Central Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

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 Faith – Mai Sahiba’s Dargah, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Pilgrims’ progress. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] They are bearing long scraggy beards. They are dressed in turbans, and long kurtas. Their necks are loaded with chains of colourful stones. Their fingers are decked with rings. They form a crowd, but each of them appears to be immersed in his own private world, as if he were utterly alone. These are fakeers. Tonight, they are packed into a tiny courtyard. The courtyard is part of a Sufi shrine. The shrine is barely known in the city. Even so, this dargah in Old Delhi, hidden away in a corner, along the stone walls of Jama Masjid, is among the city’s most rare Sufi shrines. For it is devoted to a woman. Only two

City Landmark – Triveni Kala Sangam, Tansen Road

by The Delhi Walla - 0

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 Walk – Katra Bala Mal, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Despite the sunny noon, the tiny grocery is submerged in semi-darkness. Musty and cold, it is the only grocery in Katra Bala Mal. The quiet Old Delhi neighbourhood, close to Chawri Bazar, is a hotchpotch of beautiful but derelict doorways and cobwebby windows. Every building here appears to have been standing on its assigned space for hundreds of years. Same is the impression exuded by this grocery. The grocery in fact used to be a telephone booth—“STD,” says the seated gent in blue sweater. The elderly Jai Shankar gazes out from behind the shop counter, discoursing in a slow melodious tone of voice on life’s unexpected patterns. “My grandfather was a clerk

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