City Hangout - Sunset Point, N-Block, Connaught Place

City Hangout – Sunset Point, N-Block, Connaught Place

City Hangout - Sunset Point, N-Block, Connaught Place

The idyllic evening spot.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Delhi has a sometimes-fraught relationship with sunlight.

Brief winters do transform the sun into welcome relief. But mostly it remains elusive because of smog. In the summertime, sunlight is, of course, a less welcome friend.

But! Sunsets are another and altogether thrilling story. More conventional spots for capturing sunsets would certainly include its glow sweeping over the rooftop cafes in Paharganj’s touristy district. Or the sunset behind Bada Gumbad tomb in Lodhi Gardens. Or even the waning golden rays ramming into Hauz Khas lake in south Delhi. But the greater magic is discovering the hour’s beauty in seemingly ordinary locations such as N block corridor at Connaught Place.

It’s 5pm at the moment and the blaze of the disappearing sun seems to be melting into a liquid-like substance, staining N block. Soon enough, the solid walls and columns at the colonial-era block seem to lose their tangibility, as though they are mere optical illusions.

Now reduced to a golden disc, the sun is directly gleaming behind the nearby multi-storey Jeevan Bharti office building, like some sort of apple hanging from the apple tree that can be hand-plucked. While this N block corridor itself is bathed in a special kind of light; transforming shoppers with mobiles and coffee takeaways into papery silhouettes, as though they are souls passing into immortality.

The sights are surreal.

A few minutes later, the sun has disappeared altogether. N Block corridor once again looks like N block corridor.

Twilight in N-Block

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City Hangout - Sunset Point, N-Block, Connaught Place

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City Hangout - Sunset Point, N-Block, Connaught Place