City Monument – Three Edifices, Around Town
Stories of stones. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Monuments are made of stones and stories. Sometimes a series of monuments are threaded together by a single story, such as these three. Once upon a time there was a…
City Monument – Urdu Typewriter, Ghalib Academy
Language’s heritage. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Attention, heritage lovers, look at this Urdu typewriter. It is a most suitable sight for Delhi, a sheher of many writers, which is also a sheher where Urdu—a cosmopolitan khichdi of…
City Monument – Baolis, Around Town
Monuments to water. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He raises his arms, lowers his head, stands motionless, seeming to take a deep breathe, and—oh look—he is jumping down from his high altitude! Splash. He crash-lands into the water….
City Monument – Hazrat Sarmad & Hazrat Hare Bhare, Old Delhi
Old new world. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some of us like to perceive the world through colours (to truly see the impressionism of colours in everyday existence, you have to google for the New York street-life snapshots…
City Monument – A Perspective of Jama Masjid, Old Delhi
The Dilli style. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Typical Delhi aesthetics, some might say. Two eras co-existing side by side. One belongs to the 17th century. One belongs to our time. One is of red sandstone, other of…
City Monument – Kalan Masjid, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
A souvenir around the corner. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Shut your eyes. Walk carefully, lest you stumble. Pockmarked with a pothole, the rutty claustrophobic alley is very narrow, very dark, flanked by grim faded walls. Now, open…
City Monument -Chausath Khamba, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
Of light and stone. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Winter dhoop is making the marble glow, as if the soothing sunlight were emanating from the opacity of the stones themselves. The most beautiful of all buildings—old and new—in…
City Monument – Stone Jaalis, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah
Screens forever. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Air entwined with stone, becoming jaali. The lattice screen has long been an element of Delhi’s architecture. One unlikely place to experience this living heritage is the sufi shrine of Hazrat…
City Monument – Madrasa Aminia, Kashmere Gate
A lesser-known beauty. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] First, the eyes are drawn to the arched pool. Then, to the greenish water in it; to the sky in the water; to the reflected crows flying in the reflected…
City Monument – Dilli Gate, Najafgarh
A namesake. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world has many Dilli Gates. There is a Dilli Gate in Lahore. There is a Dilli Gate in Ajmer. In Bharatpur. In Aligarh. In our very own Ghaziabad. All these…
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