City Faith – Shree Hanuman Mandir, Hauz Khas Village Faith by The Delhi Walla - October 29, 20250 Faith on the Main Lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Loud music. Chattering crowds. This evening in Hauz Khas Village could be any evening here. Indeed, it is always the same scene in the fashionable south Delhi destination. The place zealously pulsates to the moment, propelled by the youthful zest of its commerce. It is also timeless, because of its 14th century monuments. While these HKV characteristics have been noted many times over, nobody yet has taken a serious note of the village’s one more crucial aspect—the Shree Hanuman Mandir. HKV has actually two temples. The Shiv Mandir is in a remoter back-lane, and not easily trackable. It is the recently renovated temple of Hanuman ji that gives an assertive character to
City Monument – Beautiful Door, Gali Badliyan Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 27, 20250 A door is gone. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Ignorance can be kind, for sometimes there is no comfort in the truth. This piece of news unfolded some time ago, but without catching the notice of the world. The lingering ignorance kept a thing alive that was no longer alive. It was among Delhi’s most beautiful doors. See photo—snapped four years ago. The door is gone. The door was in Old Delhi’s Gali Badliyan, an alley so ordinary that only an unreasonably optimistic person would have explored it to seek an object of such profound beauty. The wooden door marked the entrance to a private house that had rust-coloured walls and a finely sculpted balcony. One of the members of the household's extended family
City Walk – Gali Loharan, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 26, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The man who writes poems is called a poet. The woman who writes poems is also called a poet. Sometimes she is referred to as poetess. The way a female actor is referred to as actress. Now, take the case of lohar and loharan. “Lohar” means blacksmith, the artisan who deals with metals. While “loharan” is considered to be the feminine equivalent of “lohar.” So is loharan a female blacksmith? Or, can it be that loharan refers to lohar’s wife? Since the word “lohar” is also identified with the wider community of blacksmiths, does “loharan” then refers to a female member of the community? By the way, loharan is also the name
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 Season – Floss-Silk Bloom, Kamani Auditorium & Other Places Nature by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 20250 Winter pink. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] We, the pitiable Delhiwallas. The extraordinarily extreme pollution of present days might spur a citizen to rue their kismet in being a citizen of this city. Or, the same citizen can follow the following directive. Put on the anti-pollution face mask, head to Mandi House theater district, and station yourself outside the Kamani Auditorium, on Copernicus Marg. Now, relax and enjoy the show. The polluted afternoon here is staging the silent musical of a floss-silk in bloom. The tree appears to be within the compound of Kamani, but it actually stands in the adjacent Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra. Whatever, the floss-silk’s abundant pink flowers are clustered closely together, resembling a giant chrysanthemum of sparks
City Life – Diwali 2025, Around Town Faith Life by The Delhi Walla - October 20, 20250 All the lights we can see. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The most precious light must be the light that comes just before darkness. Every evening, the dusty Laxmi Narain street in central Delhi’s Paharganj gets haloed in shades of gold, as the sun sets towards the west-facing end of the street. But this golden light dissolves. The action then shifts to the sky above the street, where this part of the big wide sky starts to show thick strands of pink light. This particular pink is different from the pink concrete of the long-shut Imperial Cinema, which stands facing the same street. Soon enough, the pink of the sky too dissolves. The blue had already vanished. But worry not,
City Walk – Patli Gali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 19, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A man in lungi is trudging through this long, narrow, and dark tunnel, here in Old Delhi. He is carrying a hefty load on his head. Since the load is so unwieldy, and the tunnel is so cramped, the man gets stuck midway. He twists this way and that, shifts the load on his head, and only then is he able to make his way towards the tunnel’s exit. The tunnel is otherwise utterly deserted and silent. As the eyes adjust to the darkness, the tunnel reveals itself to be an extremely cramped street lined on both sides with tall doorways. Each doorway opens into a spacious hall. Each hall has scores
City Monument – Munda Gumbad, Deer Park Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 17, 20250 Atop the bald. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] How is it like to sit on a bald head? You may find the answer in a Delhi monument. The “munda” in the name of Munda Gumbad means bald, and this stone pavilion gets such an unusual name because of its disappeared dome. The monument is no city secret, but neither is it well known. May be because it has the misfortune of being in a locality that is rich with far more important moments. The centuries-old edifice lies inside south Delhi’s Deer Park, and stands on the flattened top of a grassy mound. The mound overlooks a smelly lake. The other side of the lake faces the far more picturesque monuments of Hauz Khas
City Life – Delhi Walls, Around Town Life by The Delhi Walla - October 16, 20250 Reading the walls. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The historic Walled City of Old Delhi is barely left with its original stone walls. No worries. The much larger modern-day megapolis of New Delhi has hundreds of thousands of individual brick walls that flank its roads and streets, colonies and slums, bazars and suburbs. These walls are full of idiosyncratic personalities, and tend to be plastered with all sorts of advertising flyers. Some ads are banal, some are funny, some are sad, and some are shockingly crude. Together, the wall flyers show the city’s inner life, inadvertently betraying the anxieties and aspirations of its citizens. One afternoon, a young man is seen stamping a roadside wall with such flyers near the New
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Khushal Sachdeva, Khushal Store Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - October 15, 20250 Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The first thing you notice about him is... well, let’s state it boldly! This neighbourhood grocery-store man must be possessing one of the most winsome smiles among all of us Delhiwale—see photo. This evening, while busy handling the customers, the extremely polite Khushal Sachdeva agrees to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences. The principal aspect of your personality. My smile. Your main fault. I get a bit irritated at times. Your favourite occupation. Managing our shop. It was founded by my dadaji, the late Shri Vasudev ji. He had come to Delhi during the partition as a