A 70-year-old shop is expected to wallow in its past. Yesterday must always be richer than today and tomorrow should be forever uncertain. If it’s a photo studio, the tragedy has to be weepier. After all, who needs to go to photo studios now? Read more

This is the first time The Delhiwalla is going to Europe. Exciting. There is no direct flight from Delhi to Madrid. Great. This Finnair flight will first fly to Helsinki. Doubly exciting. I’m getting a window seat. Triple exciting. Read more

I have been to Garstin Bastion Road, the city’s red-light district, just next to New Delhi railway station (Ajmeri Gate), more than once.

Earlier I would only walk in the streets while sex workers would aggressively beckon me from the windows of their kothas. But I was scared to go in. Read more

One can be romantic about Husseini Hotel. Tucked in a 14th century settlement, on a lane named after Urdu’s greatest poet Mirza Ghalib, this eatery is feeding hungry people since 1942.

One may also be realistic. Husseini’s shorbas are too greasy, the rotis are often left uncovered, the cooks keep changing, and there is an open drain next to the counter. Besides, a few in the immediate neighbourhood could be caught in a social scandal if spotted here. Read more

Ranking somewhere between DTC buses and private cars in the social hierarchy of the city’s traffic system, autos are an essential Delhi feature. The Delhi Walla asked Delhiites, both present and past, about their experiences with this Capital Necessity. Read more

 

Mr Arif Khan’s business establishment stands a few steps away from Ghalib’s last haveli in Ballimaran, an Old Delhi neighborhood best known for being the address of… well, Ghalib’s last haveli. 

Ironically, Mr Khan’s cart has no book by Ghalib. That doesn’t embarrass him - “I’m illiterate, can’t read,” he says. Read more

I’m looking for The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Not just any copy.

You see I spend most of the day and night walking around in the city, armed with a camera, a notepad and, usually, a book. Unfortunately, when it comes to Will, I could either carry him or handle my camera, not both. Read more

To be in a multinational crowd, you need not go to Maurya Sheraton’s lobby. Just head straight for Zaki Cybercafé in Nizamuddin Basti.

Tucked in a crowded lane, up an uncomfortable flight of 12 steep stairs, the moment you enter Zaki, you are overcome by claustrophobia. Two boxy rooms, eight assembled computers, four telephone booths, plus a third room serving as a sexologist’s clinic. But we will limit ourselves to the cybercafé. Read more

The strange logic behind the naming of Delhi neighbourhoods.

Shakespeare says, that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The other day, I went to Khichdipur in east Delhi and could not smell any khichdi. Read more

On the evening of April 23rd, 2009, author Sadia Dehlvi was beaming like a happy child in her Nizamuddin East drawing room. Finally, she had her first book, Sufism, The Heart of Islam, clasped tightly in her hands. Earlier in the day, Harper Collins India, Ms Dehlvi’s publisher, had sent her a copy of the book hot off the press. Notwithstanding her excitement, The Delhi Walla pestered her for an interview over a cup of green tea. Read more