City Hangout – Defence Colony Secrets, South Delhi Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - February 4, 20260 The market's three stars. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It isn’t only Khan Market where Delhi goes to see and be seen. Fashionable crowds also condescend to grace Defence Colony Market with their august presence. Less theatrical than its aforementioned cousin, the neighbourhood market has been extensively surveyed by city chroniclers. Even so, it still holds a few overlooked curiosities—beyond, of course, an unusually high concentration of pharmacies. The first is a deserted relic wedged between Genre Kids Collection showroom and Broadway Drycleaners (the laundry service has been operating since 1959). At street level, the entrance to the two-storey structure is sealed shut by a weather-beaten metal shutter, rusting at the edges. It is the first floor that arrests the eye.
City Obituary – A Bougainvillea Shaving Stall, Chelmsford Road Hangouts by The Delhi Walla - February 3, 20260 On the passing of a place. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is gone. The shaving stall is no longer here. Also gone is the dense hedge of bougainvilleas that roofed over it, turning a dusty stretch of paved footpath into an unexpectedly beautiful site. On a cold, grey evening, the scene in central Delhi’s Chelmsford Road is unrecognisable. Blue construction barricades line the dug-up browned earth. A labourer in yellow hamlet is standing beside a yellow excavator. Arms on hips, he says a flyover is being built. If so, the consolation is that a small, human-scaled world that stood here has been erased to raise something grander, more utilitarian, all for our greater common good. The stall has already been celebrated
City Poetry – Ritu Faridabadi’s Verses City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - February 3, 20260 Poetry in the city. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Ritu Chowdhry began writing poetry while growing up in Kanpur. After her marriage, she took the name Ritu Asthana and moved to Faridabad in the Delhi region, where she has lived for over two decades. Over time, her writing and her identity as a poet became closely tied to the city. Today, she signs her work as Ritu Asthana “Ruhi” Faridabadi. This name reflects her personal and geographical sense of belonging. “Life for a girl, when she is living with her parents, is simpler,” she says this afternoon, over an encounter in a literary academy, where the hushed hall is filled with portraits of dead writers and out-of-use typewriters. Ritu observes
City Walk – Chatta Girdhar Lal, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - February 1, 20260 The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Virtually every old building in Old Delhi is of slim, narrow bricks known as lakhori. A defining component of Mughal-era architecture, these burnt clay bricks once constituted the weight of entire edifices—havelis, gateways, temples, and mosques. Their decline mirrored the decline of the Mughal Empire, though their era ended much later. One such building dominates Chatta Girdhar Lal, a lane that forms part of the larger Gali Arya Samaj (already been chronicled on these pages). While the lane is mostly lined with well-kept modern houses, this old, dilapidated structure stands abandoned. A broken window gapes onto the street, and an arched niche below is filled with discarded plastic bags, sacks, and broken
Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Roshan Khatoon, Central Delhi Delhi Proustians by The Delhi Walla - January 29, 2026January 29, 20260 Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] She is finally done for the day. Roshan Khatoon, a housekeeper, has just finished her evening work in a central Delhi household, and is getting ready to leave for home. With an umbrella and pithu bag in hand, she patiently 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. Your hero in real life. My husband. We had a love marriage—I first met Salman on Instagram about three years ago. My first husband was not good to me, but Salman loves my three children and takes care of them as if they were his own. My
Delhi Homes – House without a Balcony, Sahibabad Delhi Homes by The Delhi Walla - January 29, 20260 A home of windows. [Text and photo by Maynak Austen Soofi] Delhi’s outdoors have grown increasingly hostile. Extreme pollution is poisoning the air, summer heatwaves are becoming inhumanely intense, and every year the monsoon inflicts a renewed threat of dengue fever. One victim of this triple whammy is an element of multi-floor housing architecture that is commonly taken for granted. The balcony. Once a cherished outdoor space at home for breathing, observing, and relaxing, the balconies in the city’s residential towers are losing their relevance. Today, they survive mainly as decorative relics. Even those citizens who have the luxury of balcony rarely step into it, keeping themselves secured in AC rooms equipped with air purifiers. Many balconies, in fact, tend to be sealed
City Life – Dayanita Singh’s Myself Mona Ahmed, Mehnediya Qabristan Life by The Delhi Walla - January 27, 2026January 27, 20261 Mona's silver jubilee. [Text and photo by Maynak Austen Soofi] At the Paramount Book Store in Janpath market, the shelves are lined with bestselling titles. Amid the clutter, one slim hardbound quietly draws attention. Sealed in plastic, it is priced at a startling 10,000 rupees. Bookseller Naresh’s explanation: the book is rare and long out of print. Set in Delhi, Myself Mona Ahmed is regarded as a classic. This year it turns 25. Photographer Dayanita Singh’s book interlaces image and text to trace the life of Mona Ahmed, a transgender person in Old Delhi. Documented over 13 years, the work unfolds in Mona’s voice—on love, loneliness, and on her life within and outside the eunuch community. It is also a record of an
City Walk – Republic Day Parade Sights, Central Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 26, 20260 On 26 January, 2026. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is the day of the parade. Most of us Indians associate the annual Republic Day parade on 26 January with the stretch along New Delhi’s Kartavya Path. This is the section that passes before an audience of the republic’s top VVIPs and is broadcast live on TV. The parade actually continues beyond this familiar route. Here is a sense of some of the sights that our esteemed paraders will see today as they parade along the historic route. Photo shows citizens trying to get a glimpse of a previous year’s parade as it crosses the Dilli Gate traffic light. After exiting out of Vijay Chowk, Kartavya Path, and India Gate—the
City Walk – Gali Blue Door Wali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - January 25, 20260 The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is one of Old Delhi’s longer streets. Gali Choori Walan extends from Matia Mahal Bazaar to Chawri Bazaar. Along the way, it branches into a web of evocatively named alleys—Gali Surkh Poshan, Gali Mirza Sorayya Jaan, Gali Hakeemji Wali, Gali Joote Wali, Gali Takhat Wali, Gali Manihar Wali, Phatak Deputy Sultan, Gali Magazine Wali, Gali Hafiz Banne Wali—and one alley that carries no name. Yet it is this unnamed alley that is the most notable. Unlike its cousin-alleys, it is not a cul-de-sac. instead, it is a connective corridor binding Gali Choori Walan to Chatta Sheikh Mangloo street. Denied a distinct identity of its own, the alley is dismissed as a
City Season – 2026 Basant Panchmi, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Faith Nature by The Delhi Walla - January 23, 20260 The return of yellow. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Red roses everywhere; including on the marble floor. The Sufi shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in central Delhi feels like a sanctuary to this flower, as it is to its 14th century patron saint. Indeed, the lanes to the dargah lie crammed with rose stalls. Pilgrims buy these roses as they walk towards the shrine, carrying the flowers as offerings. By day’s end, Hazrat Nizamuddin’s grave gets buried beneath mounds of red roses. The roses reign in the shrine throughout the year—except for one day, when the red gives way to yellow. That special day is today. This evening, the dargah will receive visitors in yellow caps, turbans and scarves. They