City Monument – Church of Epiphany, Gurugram Faith Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 14, 20250 So Jane Austen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has no pleasure in elegant architecture, must be intolerably dull. So here we are, facing this edifice. It was chronicled years ago on these pages, but has lately acquired an urgent significance. The coming December marks Jane Austen’s 250th birth anniversary, and this Church of Epiphany in Gurugram’s Civil Lines connects us to the world of that timeless writer. For this tiny structure evokes the spirit of those village churches in England that, a devoted Austenite imagines, must have been frequented by the good people encountered in her novels. A plaque on the site asserts the same argument. It links the church’s revivalist gothic architectural style
City Food – Ghalib’s Belly, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - October 13, 20250 On Delhi dysentery. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi’s immortal Mirza Ghalib composed some of the world’s greatest love poems. Even so, when the poet would sit every morning on the commode, he wouldn’t exactly expel rose petals. Indeed, one thing that links the great romantic artists to us ordinary mortals is our human body’s basic functions, and malfunctions. Being human, Ghalib naturally had his share of digestive setbacks. The fact is on record, confirms poetry scholar Aqil Ahmad, showing a Ghalib verse as proof. The erudite man heads central Delhi’s Ghalib Academy, which has a museum showcasing, among other things, terracotta reproductions of food items dearest to Ghalib’s belly—see photo. While on the topic, it must be regretfully pointed out
City Walk – Gali Hakim Boali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 12, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Baoli, the step-well of yesteryears. Where the stone staircase gently descends towards underground water. Delhi’s most instagrammed step-well is Agrasen Ki Baoli, near Connaught Place. Then there is Gali Hakim Baoli. This Old Delhi street too has steps descending into an underground… cricket field! To start with, the gali in Daryaganj is short and cramped. Its name evokes two traditional support systems that were familiar to Delhiwale of an earlier era. When ill, citizens would go to a hakim, who would be the doctor saheb of the time. When stricken by summertime heat waves, citizens would go to a baoli, which would be the AC hall of the time. Today, Gali Hakim Baoli
City Faith – Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s 722nd Urs, Central Delhi Faith by The Delhi Walla - October 10, 20251 In the courtyard of literature, history, architecture, music. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Of all the cities, Delhi has the most Sufi shrines, thereby distinguished as ‘Bais khwaja ki chaukhat’, the threshold of 22 Sufis. The shrines far exceed this metaphoric number of course. The well-known among them are dedicated to saints such as Qutubuddin Bhakhtiyar Kaki, Sheikh Nassiruddin Chirag Dehlvi, and Bibi Fatima Sam, who is Delhi’s only female Sufi saint. This week, a shrine in central Delhi has taken centerstage among all the shrines. The 722nd urs, or death anniversary commemoration, of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya began yesterday. Since a Sufi’s passing is celebrated (not mourned), Nizamuddin’s urs has always been a joyous occasion. Over the recent years, it has
City Food – Shapely Candies, Red Fort & Surroundings Food by The Delhi Walla - October 9, 2025October 10, 20250 An uncommon street stall. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi streets are extraordinarily kaleidoscopic. Each shift of the eyes shows something different. Sometimes the gaze falls on a thing so uncommon that it could at best be sighted only once or twice during the course of a year. This afternoon, the gaze is held hostage by a thing that has never ever been seen before, at least by The Delhi Walla in the many years of strolling along the city streets. It must be a kind of street stall. The stall’s vendor is ringing an old-fashioned brass bell. The bell is attached to the vendor’s super-bulky wooden pole. The pole is topped with a canopy of two separate fabrics. The entire
City Food – Winter Peanuts, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - October 8, 20250 Season's "timepass.". [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] If the re-surfacing of sattu ghol drink in city streets herald the arrival of Delhi’s long summer, then the re-surfacing of freshly-roasted warm peanuts herald the return of the city's short winter. The Monday marked Sharad Purnima, commemorating the end of monsoon, and the start of cold season. But signs of the looming winter had infiltrated weeks ago into the streets. Such as the fresh sightings of stalls hawking the tasty crisp gajak, which acts like a natural heater to the body. The garma-garam peanuts too have returned to our lanes, purported to provide warmth, and a comforting flavour, to the palate. Late last week, the peanuts sellers were sighted underneath a pedestrian overpass in
City Monument – Domes around Humayun’s Dome, Central Delhi Monuments by The Delhi Walla - October 7, 20250 The monuments of Hazrat Nizamuddin. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Visible from afar, the bulbous gumbad of Humayun’s Tomb symbolises the entire monument. The centuries-old dome also strives to speak for its notable vicinity. Delhi’s Nizamuddin region might be a minuscule slice of land, but the history-transforming Mughal identity was born on its soil. The area also hosts less visible but as significant domes, which give a unique character to this principal site of the Indian past. The dome of poet Rahim’s tomb is only partly sheeted with marble blocks. (The original stones were removed and slapped on the dome of Safdarjung Tomb.) The present-day white marble blocks, put up during the tomb’s conservation by the Aga Khan Trust of Culture,
Mission Delhi – Adnan, Lodhi Garden Mission Delhi by The Delhi Walla - October 6, 20250 One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once there lived a blacksmith. His son was also a blacksmith. His son’s son is not a blacksmith. The young man is a skater. This evening, Adnan is skating along a concrete walking track in Lodhi Garden. He glides past the faraway sunset, past the park people lounging on the rain-wet grass, past the centuries-old Sheesh Gumbad. He respectfully slows down as he overtakes an elderly gent, after which he immediately picks up speed, soon disappearing from sight. On the following evening, over lemon tea tête-à-tête in a Walled City chaikhana, Adnan says he never skates in his Old Delhi neighbourhood. He is speaking slowly, in a low
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 &
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Satyapal Kapoor, Paharganj Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - October 3, 20250 Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Accessed by a metal ladder, the serenely silent office of astrologer and palm reader Satyapal Kapoor in central Delhi’s Paharganj looks like a photo album. The walls are decked with framed collages of photos showing him with foreign clients. Indeed, a substantial number of people who approach him happen to be western backpackers staying in the area’s budget hotels. This evening, the genial man 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. What would be your greatest misfortune? It hasn’t yet happened, but being an astrologer, I have already foreseen it. I will die in