City Monument – Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, Central Delhi
Reflections of faith. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Built by a Sikh general in 1783, this gurudwara, or Sikh temple, has an expansive compound and a large sarovar (holy pond). Dedicated to Guru Har Kishan, the eighth Sikh…
City Monument – Ghalib’s Haveli, Ballimaran
Poet’s last home. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Every 27 December, on Ghalib’s birthday, his admirers march to his haveli in Shahjahanabad with lighted candles and give sound bites to the media on the poet’s relevance. As if…
City Monument – Firuz Shah Kotla Ruins, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
The fifth city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Built as the citadel of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, along the banks of the Yamuna, this is now a ruin. Firuzabad, the fifth city of Delhi, once extended from Hauz Khas…
City Monument – Khwaja Mir Dard’s Tomb, Near Zakir Husain College
The resting place of Delhi’s great poet-saint. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is one of Delhi’s most melancholic monuments. The tomb of Khwaja Mir Dard (1721-1785), an Urdu poet and a Sufi saint, is beautiful, but not…
City Monuments – Tombs, Domes & a Bridge, Lodhi Garden
Ruins in a landscaped setting. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Lodhi Garden in central Delhi is famous for its flowers, trees, birds and sloping lawns but before the garden there were the tombs. Built by the Sayyids…
City Monument – Restoring Red Fort, Old Delhi
Recreating a lost time. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Can it be done? “It’s like drawing the picture of how a dead person looked by putting together stray pieces of his unconnected skeleton,” says Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, conservation…
City Monument – Rang Mahal, Red Fort
The Mughal harem. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The largest apartment of the Mughal harem, Rang Mahal – the palace of colours – is one of the most evocative architectural compositions in Red Fort, a 17th century world…
City Monument – Karbala Graveyard, BK Dutt Colony
The gloomy getaway. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The graveyard is dead. The last person was buried in 1985. Karbala, the Shiite burial ground in BK Dutt Colony, central Delhi, is reserved exclusively for the funeral of tazias,…
City Monument – Nila Gumbad, Nizamuddin East
Delhi’s oldest Mughal-era ruin. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Its beauty lies in its tiled dome, rare in Delhi. Situated behind Humayun’s Tomb, Nila Gumbad, or blue dome, was on the banks of Yamuna, the course of which…
City Monument – Jantar Mantar, Opposite Park Hotel
Check the time. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Formally Delhi’s largest pissoir, this 18th century tongue-red solar observatory underwent refurbishment that includes installation of public toilets. Built in the early 1700s by the founder of Jaipur, Maharaja Sawai…
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