Celebrating Eid in uncertain times
By Fathima M & Sharonee Dasgupta
This Eid reminds us of the sufferings – man-made or not – that are capable of tearing our lives apart and leaving deep scars within us.
Squat the Delhi metro system! Now! Everyone!
By ARAM
We call all persons with female bodies, commonly known as ‘women’, to flood the metro system and use it as public space henceforth. Its free, it has A/C, clean floors to relax on. We especially invite all pavement-dwelling, homeless women and their underage children to start squatting in the metro system.
Poetry in the Times of Amaltas
By Tikuli
Laburnum makes Delhi a midsummer day’s dream. This short blossoming is one of the many ways the city makes you fall in love with it again and again. It makes you forget the soaring temperature, the melting asphalt, and the noxious fumes as you stand witnessing the alchemy of these beautiful flowers. The cityscape is nothing less than Monet’s painting.
Gully Buoy
By Kamayani Sharma
Rather than fantasies of global superstardom, the dreams and struggles of Khirkee 17 suggest other worthwhile possibilities: of communitarian resistance to market appropriation, of the intrinsic value of a creative life. It’s that spirit that infuses hip-hop and has caused their own lives to be stabilized and enriched, if less dramatically than some of their peers’.
Field Notes: Witnessing Workers’ Plight in Metropolitan Indian capital
By Dayem Mushtaq Wani & Mubashir Ahmad
After so much of hard labour that these men put in, they only manage to earn about 10 to 12 thousand a month. Of these 10 to 12 thousand that Devi Lal earns, he sends more than half of it to his family in Mahoba. The rest? He saves most of it and when the amount is substantial enough, he returns to his home for a break.
Historical Monuments in Mehrauli City lie under the threat of destruction
By Majid Alam
The overarching reason for the monumental decline is state neglect. Why does the state neglect some monuments that are equally important, if preserved and restored? Does the answer for the decay lie in their lack of political appeal? For instance, can monuments like the Jahaz Mahal and Hauz-i-Shamsi be invoked in politics?
On Durga’s Migrant Trails
By Bhaswati Ghosh
I await the day when I would run into someone from Delhi at a North American puja pandal on dashami. I want to experience the kolakuli magic my grandfather did in his probaash all those years ago, in what is now mine.
Delhi: The City and the Abuse of Power
By Sadiq Zafar
During the early hours of the day, he reads and prepares himself for his post-graduate studies. At other times, he drives the auto rickshaw for his survival in Delhi. From whatever he earns, he has to pay off five hundred rupees to the owner of the vehicle.
Thoughts on Sikh Genocide in 1984
By Faiq Faizan
It would have been easier for the Sikhs to decide that only their community will be served Langar in the Gurudwaras. But they chose otherwise. Even today the gates are open to everyone.
In The Name of Heritage and Culture
By Sadiq Zafar
With crumbling and decaying sewage infrastructure, unchecked sewer outfalls and haphazard informal growth, violation of environmental norms and encroachment on the floodplain, Yamuna still struggles to find a place in the city’s imagination.
Delhi: This melancholic city
By Ishan Kukreti
Dear followers of Heraclitus, your city, doused in melancholy, is a dead museum of memories, surviving between living and dying, remembering the lonesome Pandavs, the experimenting Tughlaqs, the raids of Taimur, the songs of Sufis, the taste of freedom and the pillage for Gandhi.
Delhi Residents Respond to Delhi Pollution and the Odd-Even-Formula (Part-II)
We hope the question of pollution would ultimately draw the attention of our governments and city-planners to install a decent, workable, and affordable public transport system.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 