Photo Essay – The Heartbeat of Delhi
Connaught Place after 8 pm.
[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]
To listen to Delhi’s heartbeat, make a round of the Inner Circle (or Outer Circle) in Connaught Place. Do it after 8 pm. Don’t walk inside the corridor but on the pavement next to the road, under the open sky.
At this time, the electric bulbs of highrises such as Statesman House and LIC Building will be twinkling behind a haze of smoke. The glow of the streetlights will be mixing in with the moonshine. Inside showrooms, the attendants will be handling the day’s last customers. Behind the glass panels of fast food outlets, solitary souls will be feeding on french fries. At bus stops, the home-bound day-jobbers will be standing with their lunch boxes and leather bags. In parking stands, lonely homosexuals will be cruising for sex.
Elsewhere, the doped beggars will be huddling together to smoke more hashish. The tormented lovers will be counting minutes to the farewell hour. The anemic street children will be selling colourful balloons. The tourists will be walking with their eyes glued onto their Lonely Planets.
And when you have to cross the road between the shopping blocks, the zipping cars will not stop for you. To your urban sensibilities, the sound of their blaring horns will be like the climactic movements of a symphony orchestra. Trust The Delhi Walla, you will want a repeat performance.
Going home
Please blow your horn
Solitary souls
What’s moonshine?
Waiting for someone
Evening muggles
Starry night
Where’s my bus?
City lights
Going underground
Home is the city
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral)
God Mayank it's quite intense. You have so strongly portrayed, in words and pictures, leaving quite an impact on the heart. Your writing pierces my heart!
Delhi looks so beautiful at night. Really calming for me.www.ateinsouthasia.blogspot.com
Very true…And not to forget…The ATM counters are well lit amidst lonely dark big Caunnaught place, The night show is over and people are running down to parking area making happy noises, Keventer's is half shut and serving milk to last few customers, A couple standing dangerously close to eachother behind the pillar, in the outer alley Dhaba boys are cleaning utensils abusing eachother, Biriyani is all sold out at the Masjid shop, Across Odeon the day has just begun for the Banarasi Paanwalas and their biker clientele. Lonely Delhi police PCR Van waits at the corner and a policeman helping a foreigner to locate right direction, Delhiwalla slowly grazes out, crosses the road and waits for the nightbus and he is not tired…and now he is heading to IndiaGate for an Ice-cream lick…Really unstoppable Delhi and Delhiwalla!
real amazing stuf !Just Seeing your pics and writings , I can conjure up your rough image !Wish even I could something different !Good LkKeep up the gud wrk 🙂