Photos: From lockdown to slow release, a Delhi picture diary

As the country went into a state of lockdown on March 25, our lives were disrupted in a manner unlike anything we have encountered before. For a city that is always industrious, hard at work, assiduously getting through the tasks of the day, Delhi had to adapt, and adapt fast, to a change in rhythm. Schools shut down, and the children had to start attending classes online. Our offices asked us to work from home, and we stayed in — as instructed — for days on end, barely stepping out if we could help it. Many lost their livelihoods; almost everyone began to do a lot more domestic work than they had done previously. Mayank Austen Soofi captured this Delhi through his camera and phone, looking for new ways of telling the stories of our lives as we battled the coronavirus pandemic.

Updated on: Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM IST

News

Share via

• 
• 
• 
• 

Copy link

• 

1/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

The legendary Old Famous Jalebi Wala shop in Chandni Chowk is screened off with a plastic curtain on an early December morning. A special poster cane up three weeks ago asking customers to maintain social distancing. The masked cook, Vicky, has just finished deep-frying the day’s first batch of jalebis. The shop stayed closed for two months during the lockdown and reopened in early June. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

2/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

Janakpuri resident Radhika Singh, 52, irons her newspaper before any family member living in the three-floor residence touches it. In the early days of the pandemic, many discontinued the delivery of newspapers to their homes fearing that the paper might carry the Sars-CoV-2 virus within its folds. She said she got the idea of ironing from popular English series, Downton Abbey. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

3/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

Masked customers at a small roadside tea shop in Seelampur on a cool November morning. A Delhi Government-issued poster on the wall reads: “Not wearing mask is not a heropanti...” But, of course, the customers were obliged to take off their mask to dunk down their chai. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

4/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

A hand sanitizer bottle occupies a place of decorative reverence in the Sufi shrine of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya during the saint’s 806th birthday celebrations in October. Closed for more than five months, the shrine re-opened to visitors in September, and this was the first major event held there. The dargah was decked with flowers, balloons and buntings, with the hand-sanitiser bottles were installed attractively in various places for use. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

5/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

Fitness trainer Muhammed Zaid, 30, exercises on an early December morning in a gym in Old Delhi’s Kucha Chelan. While Zaid didn’t go to the gym during the lockdown, he didn’t miss exercising even for a single day. “I was about to move to Dubai to work as a fitness trainer, I’d gained all the appropriate certificates necessary for having such a job in Dubai... and then the pandemic arrived and my plan fell through.” (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

6/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

Designer Elena Tommaseo, a native of Venice, on a Zoom meet-up with friends and relatives in Italy from her apartment in East of Kailash in April. This picture was taken at a time when Italy was witnessing a great many deaths due to the pandemic and Tommaseo, a longtime Delhi resident, was anxious for her folks, especially her elderly parents. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

7/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

Hair stylists Wakeel and Bali, both in their 40s, in their white PPE kits in Khan Market’s Bharat Hair Dresser, late November. “It’s to protect ourselves and our customers from the virus,” said Wakeel. Their daily attendance in the salon, which opened on June , emphasises the fact that while many professionals might still be working from home, there are others who are obliged to perform their duties in person, at work sites. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

8/8

View Photos in a new improved layout

Updated on Dec 25, 2020 11:29 AM

Fourth-year engineering student Muskan Singh, 21, prepares for her ongoing final exams at her Ghaziabad home, December. Singh hasn’t been to her college’s campus in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women since the lockdown began in March. “Soon we’ll complete two semesters without meeting our professors in person... can they recognise us as their students if we happen to pass by them somewhere?” she said. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)