Beauty in the smog. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Catch a glimpse of red lava smouldering atop a distant volcano. Well, it’s just a reflection of the evening sky on a pond. This breathtaking view, as seen from a Mughal-era stone bridge, is on exhibit throughout the year at Lodhi Garden. So are the park’s centuries-old monuments, flower hedges, trees, birds, dogs and VIPs. But there is one incredibly beautiful aspect of Lodhi Garden experienced only at a certain time of the day - and only in winters - when the air becomes partly hazy with smog or mist. The scenes appear to have been processed with Instagram filters. Visit after sundown, when the place starts getting shrouded in darkness, and

The soothing winter space. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] When one hears the words “Jama Masjid”, one instinctively thinks of Old Delhi’s Mughal-era mosque. That red sandstone monolith by Emperor Shahjahan is among the world’s greatest monuments. The twilight illuminates some parts of it most poignantly. The area remains so crowded, and the surrounding marketplace is so packed during the evening, that it is difficult to concentrate on the setting sun and the beauty that it casts on the mosque. Now consider the Jama Masjid in Gurgaon in the Greater Delhi Region - the Friday Mosque in Sadar Bazar. It has nothing of the history and grandeur of its Purani Dilli cousin. But the sunset ambience here is no less exceptional.