Never before been out of India but having grown with Tolstoy, Bach and Vermeer, I considered myself a brown European with Proustian sensibilities. In September, 2009, I finally went to the ‘mother continent’, not on an extensive tour, but for a weeklong getaway in Madrid. Read more

Matia Mahal Bazaar. Midnight. Shutters down. Looking up at the delicate latticework of Old Delhi balconies, he suddenly turns back and stands facing the Jama Masjid. Read more

Mrs Pushpa Singh’s living room in Vasundhara Valley Apartment Society has been turned into a makeshift temple. She and her husband, Kshetra Pal, are hosting Ramayan Paath, a continuous reading session of Ramcharitmanas, a Hindu epic on Lord Ram. Read more

GB Road, Delhi’s red light district, is all gratitude to the Indian Supreme Court. “We are so happy,” says Ms Nasreen, a sex worker. On December 9th, 2009, a two-judge bench in the court asked the government whether it could legalize prostitution if it couldn’t curb it. Read more

You don’t understand a city by its buildings and bazaars, but by its people. That’s why you can’t take in the entire Delhi in one lifetime – we have 13 million souls here.

The Delhi Walla plans to make portraits of one per cent of this 8-digit figure, that is 1, 30, 000 Delhiwallas. Each portrait will have a photograph of the person along with a peek into his life. Read more

One of the things to do in Delhi before you die is to watch the daybreak at Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, the shrine of the 14th century sufi saint.

Embedded within a village of the same name (Nizamuddin Basti), the Dargah is accessible through topsy-turvy medieval-era by lanes. If it’s winter, reach by 5.45 am, in time for the morning prayers. Read more