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

A mysterious ruin. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sometimes, a book cover can be more stirring than the book itself. This is certainly true for a monument in RK Puram — its exterior is more interesting than its interior. Perched on a hillock, the Lodhi-era stone edifice overlooks the busy Swami Venkateshwar Marg, and looks profoundly beautiful to a passing commuter. In a speeding autorickshaw or car, the monument can only be glimpsed for a fragment of a moment, but the vision lingers in the thoughts for much longer. That initial impression slightly subsides on entering the premises, as you discover that what you saw from the road is actually the monument’s back-end, still a picturesque wall of rubble. The front

The 'qilas' of Lodhi. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is a qila. That is a qila. And that also is a qila. Very common to overhear visitors to the world-famous Lodhi Garden call each of its monuments a “fort,” a common Delhi designation to explain away any unfamiliar monument. Of course, dear reader, you aren’t one of them! But for “qila” people like us, here are tips to sound like a blue-blooded Lodhi Garden geek. Mostly built by the Sayyids (1414-1451) and Lodhis (1451-1526) of the Delhi Sultanate, the monuments make dramatic centrepieces in this garden, which was created around them in 1936, on the site of Khairpur village. The park was named after Lady Hardinge, the then viceroy’s wife. Visible

That old AC. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some of us are dodging the summertime heat waves by self-exiling within AC rooms. AC existed in the very old days too. That medieval-era air-conditioner was of stone, a secretive monument linking light to shade, earth to water. It was the baoli. Stone stairs descending to a well or water tank; the staircase punctuated with pavilions, chambers, jaalis and corridors. In hostile summer months, heat-oppressed citizens would retreat into it, lounging in the lower reaches, closer to the receding water and its coldness. Delhi’s centuries-old baolis are no longer compatible with the summer of our times. But here are a few you might explore. The 13th century Gandhak ki Baoli is the capital’s oldest.

The other memorial. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] After the sun dips into the western sky, Humayun’s Tomb gleams with special lights installed at strategic positions around the monument. The gathering blackness dematerialises the tree-filled surroundings, making the marble dome, topped with a 24 karat gold kalash, look like a harvest moon in the night sky. There’s another tomb within the monument garden, very close to emperor Humayun’s. It too has a dome, but less impressive, made of lime plastered masonry, and with no sign of gold anywhere. After sunset, it stays dark. It is known as the Barber’s tomb. Many visitors are so hypnotised by the central memorial (plus, the beautiful tomb of Isa Khan), that they forget to walk

The world of screen. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Look at this derelict building. The central pattern is as intricate as an embroidered fabric. It is made of entwined quadrangles and circles, multiplying several times over, and spanning across the tall facade. Perhaps a housebound Charulata might be standing behind this narrow jali, or screen, at the moment, her prying eyes curiously investigating the forbidden outdoors through these holes. That is unlikely. The building is uninhabited, almost in ruins, here in Gurgaon’s New Basti, near Hotel Moonlight. Even so, the roadside edifice represents an aspect of architecture that once richly furnished our cities. Welcome to the endangered world of the jali. The jali is likely to have descended from the more

A disappearing element in architecture. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] All are dusty, and some are cobwebbed. But it doesn’t matter. After all, it might be the most exquisite collection of taaks in the entire Delhi region. Taak, this arched niche inside a wall. Today, an endangered element of old architecture. The historically minded might cherish this unnamed mosque in south Delhi’s Deer Park for its Lodhi past and its floor littered with anonymous graves. But the great joy of the ruined edifice lies in a sequence of twelve taaks adorning the unused mosque’s western wall, the monument’s only surviving remnant. Everything else is gone, including the roof—if the roof ever existed. Your grandmother might easily tell you stories of typical household