A surreal stroll.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

No stars to be seen but the moon up there is lingering like a tiny white hole at the top of the greyish black sky. While down here, the deserted pave is bordered by unwieldly trees which cast upon the ground, wherever they are lit by street-lamps, the Japanese stencil of their shadows. Sudden gusts of cooling breeze is also rippling along from moment to moment. The pavement borders a wide road, presently empty.

An evening stroll in Chanakyapuri makes for one of Delhi’s most sublime walks.

The premium locality is the address of embassies and foreign diplomats. It is just 8 O’clock in the evening, and the place is as lively as a remote village after sunset. Nobody to be seen, not even a rat or squirrel. The diplomatic enclave appears to be ensconced in deep slumber. All is silent, dark. A minute back, a passing car (see photo) did create a sound. But that sound was so self-contained, so limited to its source, that it did not intrude into the surrounding silence.

The sprawling Shanti Path, especially, is blanketed in serene shanti. The clipped lawns are spreading out on both sides of the straight avenue, almost touching the walls of the embassies. How it must be like to luxuriate in the privileges existing behind those walls? May be one of these sleepy-seeming embassies is actually wide awake, busy hosting a glittery reception, in which the fashionable snobs of Delhi society are chattering nonstop over European wines.

Now an air-conditioned DTC bus passes along Shanti Path. The interiors are lit up in white. The commuters are sitting motionless, their bodies slumped on the seats, their faces vacant.

At first the pavement did seem to be empty, but gradually one begins to discern booted men stationed here and there, holding something like a gun or rifle. Poker-faced and alert, they are the VIP zone’s uniformed security personnel.

End the stroll at Chandragupta Marg. The winding pave has a bench. Overlooking a traffic circle, it is marooned on three sides by bushy hedges. To sit on this bizarrely placed bench, and watch the silence and solitude, is a surreal Chanakyapuri thrill.