Blue monument.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

It is a different kind of pleasure that one derives from gazing upon a Delhi monument by the smoggy light of the day, than from what one experiences by gazing at it amid the smoggy blackness of the night.

The centuries-old Neeli Masjid in Hauz Khas Enclave has been chronicled on this page. The Lodhi-era monument takes its name from the old neeli tiles that used to adorn the top of the arched doorway. Sadly, most of these blue tiles have been lost to time. A mere handful of them still cling to the sandstone edifice.

During the day, you will have to summon up a lot of creative imagination to feel the neela of the Neeli Masjid. The contemporary decor inside however does try to recall its ancient blueness—notices on the walls are hand-painted blue, for instance, and boxes in the walled niches are also painted blue. Actually, Neeli Masjid is one of the very few Delhi monuments named after colours—there is Subz Burj, also called Neela Gumbad, on Mathura Road; and then there is the world-famous Red Fort, the Lal Qila.

And on this cold midnight, the sky is smoggy black—no stars to be seen, moon is absent. Yet, the Neeli Masjid is illuminated in its namesake colour. The monument happens to be a practising mosque. At this late hour, a handful of worshippers—including perhaps the mosque’s imam—are wide awake inside the three-arched prayer chamber, which is lit up in the ordinary white glow of the homely “tube light.” But the monument’s arches are curtained with tatty blue sheets. The sheets are the stars of the show! The white light of the interiors is streaming out through the screens, transformed into an intense blue. See photo.

Built hundreds of years ago by a royal wet-nurse called Kasum Bhil, the edifice today happens to be surrounded by bungalows, apartments, shops, stalls, ATMs and cafés. It directly faces a warren of multi-storied flats (separated by a lawn). During the day, the vicinity swells with noise and activity, with a busy road running by the monument. This time of the night, though, no life is to be perceived in the silent outdoors. The monument is flaunting its blue to nobody.