City Food – Moradabadi Biryani, Around Town

by The Delhi Walla - 0

On a city's anniversary. On lifting the lid off the giant aluminium deg, clouds of pure scented steam escapes into the city’s smoggy air. Beneath the steam lie long grains of rice, each separate and glistening, entwined here and there with pieces of chicken, and with limpid strands of whole green chillies. Across Delhi, Ghaziabad and Gurugram, small eateries and roadside shacks serve this rice dish from morning till night. It is biryani, but not Delhi-style biryani, Lucknow-style biryani or Hyderabad-style biryani. It is Moradabadi biryani. The city that lent its name to this particular biryani has now crossed the 400-year mark, completing four centuries of history. Moradabad was founded in 1625 and named after Prince Murad Baksh, son of Shah Jahan, the

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Ana Dehlavi, Lakshmi Nagar

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Poet Ana Dehlavi is a familiar face in the world of Delhi’s poetry meets. This day, she graciously agrees to join 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. I’m a shayara, a poetess. That is the chief aspect of my being. You must understand that not everyone has the fortune to be a poet. Especially for a woman with my family background. My nanihal (mother’s family) is in Lucknow and my dadihal (father’s family) is in Aligarh. Both branches of my family are conservative. Back in the days when I had started rendering

City Literature – Bloomsday 2026, Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

City of Literature. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Today is Bloomsday, the annual celebration of Ulysses, acknowledged as the greatest modernist piece of fiction. The novel by James Joyce unfolds over a single day, 16 June, following Mr Bloom’s stroll through Dublin. Readers worldwide mark the date with Joyce-themed events. Delhi too celebrates Bloomsday, which is understandable, for our city has its own Ulysses monument. James Joyce's novel begins at Dublin's Martello Tower. Delhi is one of the places outside Ireland to have that same Martello Tower. Actually the British built Martellos across their empire, and both Ireland and India lived under British rule. Whatever, this severely dilapidated Purani Dilli ruin has inadvertently ended up being Delhi's queerest link to world

City Hangout – On Mummy, Humayun Museum

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Exhibition on mother-and-child. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Hundreds of years ago, when the Lodhi kings were ruling over Delhi, a great artist in Florence painted a picture of a mother and her child. Today, that painting, Madonna and Child by Botticelli, is on a short visit to our city. The painting’s subject was common then, as artists had depicted mothers and children for centuries, and it remains common to our day. While the theme is familiar, each such artwork feels slightly different. This very motherhood sits at the heart of One Mother, Many Mother Tongues, opening next Monday at the Havells Gallery in Central Delhi’s Humayun World Heritage Site Museum. The exhibition dwells on a bond that transcends time and

City Landmark – Gate No. 1 & Gate No. 1, Jama Masjid

by The Delhi Walla - 0

On a place-name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Place-names in Purani Dilli, belonging to streets, mohallas, and markets, are fiercely individualistic. They preserve memories of occupations, vanished landmarks or long-forgotten patrons. Sometimes a place acquires identity without acquiring a proper name. Take "Jama Masjid Gate No. 1". The phrase has become a part of the Walled City vernacular. Two distinct places share this same label. First is Gate No. 1 of Jama Masjid, one of the three gateways of the iconic landmark. The other is Gate No. 1 of the underground Jama Masjid Metro Station. One gate serves visitors to the 17th century monument. The other serves commuters of the twenty-first century transport system. Gate No. 1 of Jama Masjid forms

City Life – USA at 250, Delhi in 1776

by The Delhi Walla - 0

One city, one nation. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] See the photo. It alone is enough to tell the whole story. An auto-rickshaw is parked on a Delhi roadside bearing a “Happy Birthday America!” placard announcing the forthcoming 250th anniversary of American independence. The placard is part of an outreach initiative by the US Embassy. Behind the auto rises Dilli Gate, a monument that had already stood for more than a hundred years when the United States was born on the Fourth of July, 1776. This is not an attempt to diminish the story of present-day America. The photo simply offers perspective. When the American colonies declared independence from Britain, Delhi was already a very, very old city weighed down by centuries

Mission Delhi – Raj Bhai, Mehrauli-Gurugram Road

by The Delhi Walla - 0

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The first thing a passenger notices in the auto rickshaw is that this is no ordinary Delhi auto. It sustains a sprawling world. The auto has two fans, a small LED television, a mirror on the ceiling, a rear-view camera, charging points for mobile phones, free Wi-Fi for passengers, a stack of tissue paper, a couple of newspapers, a pen, mineral water bottles, and the national flag. The back bears a photo poster of the driver himself. Rajesh Sinha, aka Raj Bhai (that’s the name grandly displayed on the auto), has been driving on Delhi roads for more than a decade. The vehicle is a 2015 model, but

City Hangout – Masjid Udyan, Gurugram

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A boring park. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Lodhi Garden it is definitely not. It has no breathtaking beauty. Masjid Udyan Park in Old Gurugram is a small rectangular patch of land and, honestly speaking, it is a park more in name than in substance. The park’s lawn is mostly bare earth (see photo), pimpled by rat holes. In fact, the park was featured in this space some years ago, for it is special due to many reasons. And then there is another perspective. The park serves as a connecting point to some of the most fascinating aspects of the surrounding vicinity. Within a few steps of the park, three distinct self-contained worlds unfold; one of these, a tiny landmark, is

Delhi’s Proust Questionnaire – Mateen Amrohi, Mathura Road

by The Delhi Walla - 1

Portrait of a citizen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Heat and dust. Autos and buses. The evening rush is surging along Central Delhi’s Mathura Road. A sluggish stream of noise and impatience beneath the grainy gold of a dying sun. Abruptly, an otherworldly figure in sherwani and astrakhan cap appears like an apparition, wading through the exhaust and commotion with fluent grace. Poet Mateen Amrohi is returning home from a book launch. He graciously agrees to join 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. I write prose. I write poetry. Where would you like to live? Two places. Delhi, where I already live, and

City Walk – Gali Batashan 2, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 1

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] How do memories map a place? Just study the photo above. A few weeks ago, this space featured Gali Batashan, an Old Delhi street crowded with commercial establishments dealing exclusively in kagaz, or paper. The piece was read thousands of miles away by a 90-year-old gentleman in England, and soon after, his daughter contacted The Delhi Walla on Instagram. Mohan Behari Lall spent the first 29 years of his life on this Walled City street before leaving India for higher education. His family home, Sukh Bhawan, named after his great-grandfather, had 11 rooms, four kitchens, and three rooftops. In 1984, Mohan eventually settled in England, where he worked as a mechanical engineer. He

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