City Season – Summertime Rains, Around Town
Pseudo-monsoon.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Evening rush. Forceful breeze harping wildly through the clogged avenues. Suddenly the cloudy sky breaks. Illumined by the street lamps, the rain projectiles become starkly visible, pouring down on earth like iambs parading through a poem. On Zakir Husain Marg, a man walking by the roadside slinks under a tree for emergency shelter, sitting down on his haunches. A scooterist stops under the same tree, keeping his helmet on (see first photo below).
In a season of unbearable heat waves, we are being treated to cool rainy days. The mobile phone weather screen forecasts baarish for today too, and for three consecutive days from Sunday onwards. Here are a handful of monsoon-time classics you might like to visit during this pseudo-monsoon.
Some of the most barsat-friendly spots in the Delhi region are in Gurgaon. Pick any of these–foot-over bridge in Gurgaon railway station, upper floor arcades of Galleria Market, glass walled corridors of South Point mall, open-air corridors of Sadat Bazar’s Jama Masjid. And also the tiny interiors of the Church of Epiphany, old wing, where you may watch the rain through the tall narrow lancet windows.
Perched on the top of a grassy mound in Mehrauli Archaeological Complex, the hexagonal Metcalfe’s Folly panoramically presents a view of the Qutub Minar and the area’s other monuments. In the rain, you remain dry under the stone canopy, watching the historic land around go wet.
This place too is in Mehrauli. Perched on a hillock, Adam Khan’s tomb has doorways on all four sides, the openings whipping the stone chamber’s musty air into a windy mountain pass. While the rain-soaked Qutub Minar, far away, looks poignant, like the last soldier alive in the battlefield. (Get garma-garam jalebis from the adjacent Agarwal Sweets for double enjoyment).
Even a brief spell of light rain turns Hauz Khas monument into an archipelago of stony islands. You rush through a warren of chambers, pavilions and airy corridors, getting wet now and then.
Season’s unseasonal greetings/strong>
1. (Zakir Husain Marg)
1a.
1a. (Metcalfe’s Folly)
2. (Hauz Khas)
3. (Adam Khan’s tomb)
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