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Mayank Austen Soofi

Mayank Austen Soofi

Mayank Austen Soofi is a writer-snapper trying to capture Delhi by heart.

Articles by Mayank Austen Soofi

Delhiwale: This way to Gali Khan Khana

This afternoon, the eatery is packed with diners, but the large aquarium behind the tables has zero macchli. (HT)

Updated on Oct 31, 2025 11:43 PM IST

Delhiwale: Barakhamba heights

Barakhamba Road’s most iconic symbol has to be the Statesman House. 236 feet tall*, the sand-coloured tower crowns and consecrates almost every nook and corner of the adjacent Connaught Place shopping district. (HT Photo)

Published on Oct 31, 2025 03:22 AM IST

Delhiwale: Classic returns

It is his Daulat’s inaugural day for the new season—says vendor Rohit. (HT Photo)

Published on Oct 30, 2025 03:40 AM IST

Delhiwale: Hauz Khas’s Hanuman ji

Shree Hanuman Mandir had come up during the 1980s, around the time when the picturesque potential of the village was being discovered by Delhi’s fashion pioneers. (HT)

Published on Oct 29, 2025 03:12 AM IST

Delhiwale: This way to Gali Loharan

Situated near the centuries-old Ajmeri Gate monument, Gali Loharan is a narrow, cramped cul-de-sac. (HT)

Published on Oct 25, 2025 03:32 AM IST

Delhiwale: Rural notes from Jia Sarai

It is only later in a tea stall that a man is finally spotted in turban and dhoti. (HT Photo)

Published on Oct 24, 2025 03:32 AM IST

Delhiwale: Beyond pollution, the pink

The floss-silk’s abundant pink flowers are clustered closely together, resembling a giant chrysanthemum of sparks that has burst out from a Diwali firecracker. (HT Photo)

Published on Oct 23, 2025 03:10 AM IST

Delhiwale: Only from Diwali to Holi

Gajak makers at work was snapped in another season at Sadar Bazar’s Shri Balaji Namkeen, Mathhi, avam Gajak Bhandar. (HT)

Published on Oct 22, 2025 03:16 AM IST

Delhiwale: Reading the Delhi walls

One afternoon, a young man is seen stamping a roadside wall with such flyers near the New Delhi railway station. (HT)

Published on Oct 16, 2025 03:28 AM IST

Delhiwale: Ghalib’s upset belly

Mirza Ghalib once immortalised his digestive misery in verse, proof that even literary giants weren’t spared Delhi’s age-old belly troubles. (HT Photo)

Updated on Oct 13, 2025 05:19 AM IST

Delhiwale:The man who personally counted all the CP columns

Shopworker Mohsin spent three hours manually counting all of Connaught Place, arriving at a higher figure than survey’s structured 1,586 total. (HT Photo)

Updated on Oct 03, 2025 06:05 AM IST

A neighbourhood shrine

This is the shrine of a goddess who is said to ward off small pox (Mayank Austen Soofi)

Updated on Sep 30, 2025 11:21 PM IST

Delhiwale: Aakash’s “bainga”

Vendor Aakash says he makes these gajaks at his home in Khajuri. (HT Photo)

Published on Sep 29, 2025 03:08 AM IST

Delhiwale: This way to Paper Market

Streets here are littered with the usual civic litter, but also with paper shavings. We know the source of the latter—the cramped shops packed with bundles of paper sheets. This is Old Delhi’s Paper Market. (HT Photo)

Published on Sep 27, 2025 03:44 AM IST

Delhiwale: ‘Climbed the tea, drank the stairs’

“I can now engage in full-time writing,” she Tiash, sitting at her usual window-side table in a Gurugram café. (HT)

Published on Sep 26, 2025 03:36 AM IST

Delhiwale: A column of CP columns—part II

The column stands outside the Connaught Place post office, and is sandwiched between a red letterbox, and a green letter box (”only for local mails”). (HT Photo)

Published on Sep 25, 2025 03:06 AM IST

Delhiwale: “One by two”

Citizen Saad in Gali Choori Wallan, carrying the cup-and-glass chai. (HT)

Published on Sep 23, 2025 03:16 AM IST

Delhiwale: Anita Desai as a Gulmohar Park tenant

The title page has a handwritten inscription referring to the house; it was named Sneh Sadan, after Vinita’s mother. (HT Photo)

Published on Sep 22, 2025 03:20 AM IST

Delhiwale: Remembrance of a gaon past

Until 2016, Gurugram was called Gurgaon; the “gaon” in the name translating to village. This sheher indeed was a gaon. Farm fields would spread out as far as eyes could see—says an elderly Gurugram citizen. (HT Photo)

Published on Sep 19, 2025 03:22 AM IST

Delhiwale: Et tu, Red?

Early in the week, this newspaper reported that the city air is damaging the Red Fort’s red sandstone walls. (HT)

Published on Sep 18, 2025 03:20 AM IST

Delhiwale: Metamorphosis of a sarai

While Sarai Kale Khan is at the cusp of a transformative change, the village continues to convey the rawness of a rural ambiance. (HT)

Published on Sep 17, 2025 03:24 AM IST

Delhiwale: A cart is born

Fussing around with a new stack of littis roasting on his cart’s grill, the busy man graciously agrees to pose for a portrait. (HT)

Published on Sep 16, 2025 03:26 AM IST

Delhiwale: This way to Sadak Prem Narayan

The road is climaxed by a beautiful but severely damaged door, fronted by a pile of garbage. (HT Photo)

Updated on Sep 13, 2025 06:57 PM IST

Delhiwale: That long river of books

Daryaganj’s Sunday Book Bazar. Some years ago, the weekly market moved to the exhibition ground of Mahila Haat. (HT)

Published on Sep 12, 2025 04:02 AM IST

Delhiwale: Like a midsummer night’s dream

Tonight is a rare exception. The plaza’s solitariness has been somewhat compromised—by the intrusion of the brilliantly white moon. (HT)

Published on Sep 11, 2025 03:32 AM IST

Delhiwale: This September, his last drinks

Vendor Mahinder Singh is sitting at his usual spot on the pave, beside his lidded metal bucket. (HT Photo)

Published on Sep 10, 2025 03:36 AM IST

Delhiwale: Dilli Gate outside Dilli

The gateway stands in zila Ghaziabad that abuts Delhi. While the district does feel like an extension of the capital, it simultaneously exudes a strong individuality of its own. (HT)

Published on Sep 09, 2025 03:16 AM IST

Delhiwale: Dome forever

From a terrace in Nizamuddin East, Humayun Tomb’s dome looked tiny, as if it were a cloudlet doomed to dissolve any moment. (HT)

Published on Sep 08, 2025 03:14 AM IST

Delhiwale: A different Yamuna

These days, following heavy showers, the Yamuna has breached its boundaries, forcing many citizens living close to the river to evacuate their homes. (HT)

Published on Sep 05, 2025 03:14 AM IST

Delhiwale: Our bleeding Gurugram

Golf Course Road one partially cloudy evening during the sunset hour. (HT)

Published on Sep 04, 2025 03:22 AM IST

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