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 smooth metal. One is a tower, topped with a small dome. The other is a pole, topped with nine lamps. The former is a minar of Old Delhi’s historic Jama Masjid. The other illumines this slice of Old Delhi, post-sunset. Conscientious citizens who have seen other great cities of the world—Paris, Venice, etc.—tend to note that, in those places, no modern structure is allowed to alter the visual panorama of a monument. When a modern contraption comes in front of a historic

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 your eyes. Suddenly, you are in friendly exteriors flooded with warm running daylight. The next moment is the most amazing. Some people tend to exclaim, “O my God!” Many others are stunned into silence. Being such an aged city, Delhi is crammed with breathtakingly beautiful monuments. This historic landmark in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti is barely known, certainly less grand than many others. But the awe it commands, if you approach it from the aforementioned alley, is the most intense triggered by any of

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 the congested Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti, the 17th century Chausath Khamba is the world’s first all-marble structure raised by the Mughals. The great Taj Mahal came much later. Additionally, Chausath Khamba’s distinctive theme of pillared hall was later adopted by Emperor Shahjahan for his Diwan-i-Aam, Hall of Audience, at the Red Fort. Curiously, this is among Delhi’s less visited monuments. Folks are rarely sighted. May be because it lies hidden from the public view, tucked away from the main alley of the Basti, which

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 Nizamuddin Auliya. An extensive network of stone jaalis run about the sacred expanse, like a long veil of Dhaka muslin. Although it commemorates an ascetic fakir, the 14th century mausoleum is also a final resting ground for the history’s rich and powerful, with three extraordinary tomb chambers devoted to the Mughal royalties. One harbours the grave of an emperor, another has a princess who was among the most powerful women of her time, and the third shelters the last Mughal emperor’s brothers. This

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 sky. And then, in the same crowded water, you see minars and arches. This whole world is still, but suddenly it trembles. A breeze is passing over the pool, causing a minor waterquake. Nestled amid the frenzied Bara Bazar in Kashmete Gate, Madrasa Aminia lies in seclusion. The gate on the cramped street opens into an airy courtyard with the pool as its centrepiece. The reflected minars in the pool are of the Masjid Panipatiyan that stands beyond—so named because the mosque was

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 centuries-old stone portals must have faced the direction to Delhi. Old Delhi also has a Dillii Gate—it is one of the four surviving gateways of the mostly vanished wall of the Walled City. Sadly, Old Delhi’s Dilli Gate is as dead as a grave. Locked, empty. But this Dilli Gate in Delhi’s Najafgarh pulsates with hyperactive life. A government website on monuments explains it as “the main gateway of Najafgarh fort built by Mirza Najaf Khan during the reign of Shah Alam

Blue dome’s doppelgänger. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Life would have been less complicated if our Delhi didn’t have so many monuments. And some of those look so same-same! Take the early 16th century Neela Gumbad and the early 16th century Subz Burj. Each is the other’s doppelgänger. For a start, avoid asking roadside muggles for directions to Neela Gumbad. Those well-meaning citizens are likely to send you to the more visible Subz Burj on Mathura Road. This Subz Burj stands on a traffic circle, and many of us misleadingly call it Neela Gumbad because of the neela, blue, tiles on the dome. But the dome also has subz, green, tiles on its neck, which gives the relic its true

A little known exquisiteness. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One life isn’t enough to crack the megapolis of Delhi and its NCR cousins. The microscopic magnitude of a teenie weenie lane in Roshanpura will be enough to claim all the years. Lodhi Garden is a suitable microcosm for the National Capital Region. You may devote a hundred lifetimes to the park and you will still be scratching its surface. Too much going on here: the trees, the flowers, the lawns, the chai vendors crisscrossing those lawns all day long, the park’s many dogs (each has a name!), the birds, the rats, the butterflies, the benches, the ducks, the jogging tracks, the yoga groups, the reading societies, and of course the great

Beyond Humayun. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Humayun’s Tomb doesn’t have just Humayun’s grave—see the photo of his cenotaph (on the monument’s 70-feet-high chamber, real grave directly underneath). The 16th century mausoleum is home to 160 existing graves, most are hidden in the tomb’s ground-level 117 vaults, inaccessible to visitors. Only two of these graves bear inscriptions, while the identities of the others were lost over the centuries. Some of this loss stands recovered. 40 of the people who lie buried in the complex have been identified (though not their graves), thanks to an ongoing extensive archival research by Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Today, for the first time such an extensive list of historical figures buried in Humayun’s Tomb