City Walk – Gali Chah Rahat, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The Walled City enyclopedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The name could belong to a resort spa. In bolchal Hindi, chah means desire, and rahat means relief. Presto, Gali Chah Rahat ought to be a place to recover from the exhaustion of daily life. Step into this Old Delhi street, and at every turn yet another curio makes you pause. Much of the gali’s business is in ornamental artefacts. It feels like walking through a craft museum, except that the exhibits can be packed up and sent to your home. This evening, labourers are carrying parcels containing giant sculptures. Others are sitting with chai, briefly relieved of their loads. In one shop, a life-size sculpture of Bhagwan Buddh sits on the floor

City Home – Apartment Doorways, Suburban Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Door Sutra. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Metal bars run horizontally across a doorway’s width, a mosquito-proof jaali fitted behind. Another door has a cloth bag hanging limply from its handle for the delivery man to leave a 1-litre double-toned milk packet or half a kilo of masoor dal. Neither has a place outside to sit with chai. The Delhi Walla has frequently looked at Old Delhi’s disappearing doorways. Beyond Old Delhi, vastly different doorways flourish across the many new Delhis, in the capital’s suburbs and housing sectors of Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and Greater Noida. They rarely receive the attention given to a haveli doorway. Yet most of us Delhiwale come home through them. These doorways generally have no patience for

City Faith – Hazrat Nizamuddin’s 723rd Urs, Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah

by The Delhi Walla - 0

This death anniversary, prowling the graves. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is Thursday, known for its celebrated evening qawwali at Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah. This week, a truly long night of qawwali will be hosted there tomorrow, Friday, marking the 723rd Urs, or death anniversary, of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the 14th-century Sufi saint. In Sufism, death is interpreted as union with God, turning a passing into celebration. Each year, attention during the Urs turns to the qawwali. This time, after having your fill of the impassioned qawwal singers, look around the historic shrine. While the dargah draws its identity from the grave of Hazrat Nizamuddin, the focus of pilgrimage here, the place is full of other graves, some in unexpected corners. The

City Life – Life after Death, Lodhi Garden

by The Delhi Walla - 0

And the dead earth yielded life again. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Monday’s evening sky is full of clouds, with sunlight still finding its way through them. People lie scattered across a wide lawn. At its far end stands a stone edifice, its dome dark against the light. In the middle of this view is a small, unruly gathering of leaves. This is Lodhi Garden. The edifice is the centuries-old Sheesh Gumbad monument, and the leaves occupy a spot that once had a far more conspicuous resident. A dead tree had stood here for decades. Birds would settle on its bare branches, and many people would photograph it with the monument behind it. At different times, the tree famously appeared in

City Architecture – Doorways, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Door sutra. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A dark wooden double door sits within a stately arch, iron studs dotting its panels, giving it a sense of ruggedness and longevity. Some months ago, this old doorway in Old Delhi’s Lal Gali stood fully visible, with electric meters clustered on one side and cables passing through a hole above the frame. The traditional structure had made room for modern utilities. This afternoon, the same doorway is barely visible. Lengths of corrugated pipe lean against its shut doors, alongside construction materials. The electric meters have vanished. The house appears ready for reconstruction. The beautiful doorway might soon follow the meters. Just how many of Delhi’s old doorways will survive such changes? These objects of

City Life – Front Lane Paving, Khan Market

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A place at 75. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Labourers in shirts and pants are kneeling on the market’s dusty floor, fitting a paving tile into place. Nearby, two women labourers with their heads covered by their sari pallus are working among similar tiles and pans of mortar, while barefoot children sit at the edge of a newly paved stretch. Now, a woman in a crisp outfit walks past the labourers, sunglasses on her head, a white Satya Paul shopping bag on one arm. Were this scene of labourers paving a path for well-heeled shoppers in a novel, the setting might have seemed too pointed. This is the front lane in Khan Market, one of India’s most expensive shopping places. The

City Obituary – Satish Sundra, Connaught Place

by The Delhi Walla - 1

Passing of a Connaught Place icon. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] He was there every day, presiding over India’s oldest toy shop. He had looked after Ram Chander & Sons in Central Delhi’s Connaught Place (CP) for more than seven decades. One of the last people who remembered the colonial-era CP as it was in its early years, Satish Sundra died this Tuesday, aged 88. The shop at Odeon Building, in D Block, Middle Circle, opened in 1935, and its teakwood shelves and sliding doors have stood there ever since. Even as the rest of CP changed, with legacy showrooms and bookshops giving way to ever-changing restaurants and cafés. But he remained behind the toy shop counter. On any given day,

City Walk – Gali Rakab Ganj, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 1

The Old Delhi encyclopedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The name leads you elsewhere. Say Rakab Ganj and you think of the great gurdwara in New Delhi, near the old Parliament. But there is another Rakab Ganj, and it is in Old Delhi, behind Delite Cinema. Gali Rakab Ganj happens to be a centre of the meat trade. The name is printed on many of the meat shop signboards here, although the street is better known as Gosht Wali Mandi, the market for meat. This afternoon, many of the shutters are down. The shop-names above the shutters remain on display: Inam Ilahi, Kullu, Haji Mohd Qasim, Haji Shokat. One board gives the address as “Rakab Ganj, behind Delite Cinema”. A romantic

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Davinder, India International Centre

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The first thing you notice about Davinder is his infectious smile. He has been working at Delhi’s India International Centre for 17 years, for a long time as an assistant steward in the Dining Hall. A month ago, he was moved downstairs to man the bakery counter, beside the entrance to the Lounge where IIC’s la-de-da members gossip over Assam tea and masala-cheese sandwich. Davinder lives in Badraula village in zila Faridabad, some 50 kilometres from work. That distance makes for a long day. Every day he leaves home on his bike at 11.30 in the morning and returns 12 hours later. By then everyone in the house is asleep except

City Landmark – Turkman Gate Flyover, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Changing times. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A crane stands in front of Old Delhi’s Turkman Gate, its metallic yellow body cutting across the old red sandstone monument. Beside the crane, a man in white kurta-pajama is sitting atop a low block with knees drawn up. Above him, a stretch of concrete roadway ends in mid-air. Every week The Delhi Walla visits an old Old Delhi street or place, asks how it got its name, and watches how people live in it today. For the first time, its subject is so new that it is still being built. “It’s a flyover,” says a labourer in a yellow helmet. Three men playing ludo inside a parked auto rickshaw say the “flyover” will

Top