A moment ago, she was smiling. Now, she is crying. “Why these tears, Aarti?” asks The Delhi Walla. The eight-year-old girl shakes her head. Wiping off her face, she struggles to give a faint smile but starts crying again. “It’s her mother,” says Saajid Bhai*, the owner of Kotha No. XX, one of the 96 establishments on GB Road, Delhi’s red light district. 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

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