City Monument – Blue Mosque, Hauz Khas Enclave
aka Neeli Masjid. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There’s the grand Blue Mosque in Istanbul, built centuries ago that commemorates an Ottoman Sultan. And then there’s the Blue Mosque in Delhi. It was built centuries ago too, but…
City Monument – Sabz Burj, Mathura Road
A ruin restored. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s not even cerulean. It actually is somewhere between turquoise and lapis. These tiles on the dome of the…
City Monument – Shadow Corridors, Fatehpuri Masjid
Dark side. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] These dark, shifting shapes are falling upon the walls and floor like arabesques. Every day they expand, contract, grow blurry and eventually disappear with the progress of hours. This interplay of…
City Monument – Sultanate Souvenirs, Around Town
Before the Mughals. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is baking in the hot sun — Ghiyas-ud-din Balban’s tomb in Mehrauli Archaeological Park. The roof has collapsed, so have parts of the stone wall. Like many Delhi monuments,…
City Monument – Chor Minar, Hauz Khas Enclave
Life of a ruin. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] History is intrusive, and always finds its way into our today. Sometimes that intrusion is barely perceptible, as the touch of a gentle breeze on the skin. Like the…
City Monument – Old Connaught Place Staircase, A Block, Inner Circle
Finding lost time. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A creaking wooden staircase going up one side of the hall, opening into a narrow attic, or the mezzanine floor. In the earlier landmarks of the colonial-era Connaught Place (CP)…
City Monument – Delhi’s Most Beautiful Door, Gali Badliyan
A heritage nobody knows. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Found. At long last, Delhi’s arguably most beautiful door has been discovered. It doesn’t have a doorbell. It’s not in any of the forts or palaces, or museums. Surely…
City Monument – General Shah Nawaz Khan’s Grave, Old Delhi
Hero resting here. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Among those who care for graves of historical people, it is common knowledge that the shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Sarmad Shahid lies between the Jama Masjid and the Red…
City Monument – Ruined Graves, Lodhi Garden
Links to past. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Squirrels, a great many of them, are prancing about the dusty stone slabs. Water pitchers—probably kept for birds—are reflecting the cold cloudy sky. Dry leaves litter the ground. And there’s…
City Monument – Hijron ka Khanqah, Mehrauli
The retreat. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A word like ‘freedom’ acquires its true meaning only to those denied it. And so do words like “quarantine’ and ‘self-isolation’, gradually getting more real to us as we experience either…
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