City Moment – Feeding the Soul, Connaught Place
The beautiful Delhi instant.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
One cold morning The Delhi Walla saw a woman vendor in the F-block of the colonial-era shopping district Connaught Place. The showrooms were still closed. The Inner Circle corridors were empty, except for a few sleepy guards.
The woman was sitting cross-legged on a bench. She had three polythene bags filled with cracked corn. A little banner was sticking out from one of them. The hand-written notice was in Hindi.
Kabutaron ka daana yaha milta hain
[Grain for pigeons is available here]
The woman was wrapped in a shawl. A flock of pigeons was gathered near her. A man in a pink shirt, black trousers and white half-sleeved sweater came to her and purchased the food-grain. Carrying a plate, he walked to the pigeons and flung corn in the air. The birds flapped their wings and started pecking at the food. The man left.
Another man appeared. He too bought corn for the birds.
After him, a biker arrived. He was wearing a helmet.
The pigeons had a filling breakfast; the woman had a good sale. It was a beautiful moment.
Feeding the soul
Indeed! “That was beautiful moment.”
So many of your posts end with that statement, no?
I know ‘ ke yeh farmaaishi program nahin hai’, but allow me to make a suggestion. How about a piece on Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu ( Hind) located on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg near Pragati Maidan metro station? I have visited it a couple of times for Urdu books that were unavailable elsewhere. It is a dim, cold place, with a gentle janaab manning the ‘bookshop’ and pretty much the whole place. It is perfect Mayank-Austen-Sufi material!
On my last visit, I bought a copy of INDARSABHA- which is considered the first Urdu drama. Indarsabha immortalized Sabz Pari and Shahzada Gulfam in India’s literary and dramatic traditions. It was written by Amanat Lakhnavi and it is rumored that Nawab Wajid Ali Shah played the role of Indar (Indra) when it was first staged in 1853.
The last picture was breathtaking. I love it!