Circle of birds.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

This humid afternoon the circular traffic island of Hamdard Chowk on Asaf Ali Road is filled, as always, with hundreds of pigeons. The traffic noise is reaching into the sprawling circle weakened and indistinct. A man in white kurta pajama is slowly walking about the circle, stopping frequently, picking up things from the circle’s surprisingly high platform, and he is putting those things… into his mouth! These are broken pieces of mithai that somebody must have placed for the pigeons, he says. He doesn’t give reasons for consuming these himself.

‘Partner in pain’ in Urdu, the chowk’s name comes from the facing headquarters of Hamdard Laboratories At night, the traffic circle’s surroundings–the paves, the corridors, the road dividers–become a dormitory for the homeless citizens. A great number of rickshaw pullers also park their rickshaws around the chowk at night, their bodies splayed along the length of the rickshaw–feet slumped over the handle bar and head resting on the hammock-style pillow, improvised out of a gamcha scarf tied behind the rickshaw.

During the day, the same paves are claimed by stalls and eateries:, while the corridors teem with the area’s office-goers, and by occasional tea stalls.

Meanwhile this afternoon, in another part of the traffic circle, a man is picking up roti scraps littered across the ground. He says he needs the “tukde” for a few cows. The pigeons are anyway looking so well-fed, he remarks defensively.

Indeed, citizens come to the chowk throughout the day to feed the birds. Soon enough a man arrives, clambering atop the platform. He walks towards the pigeons, and slowly empties a pack of green grains on the ground. “It is moong dal, these pigeons love eating the moong dal, makes them happy.” The man works in “building-construction” and looks amused on being asked just why he had to come all the way at midday from his office in Farash Khana to feed the birds. “Doing this makes me happy.”

Minutes later, the birds rise off the ground like one giant sea wave, soaring high up in the smoggy air. They repeatedly make rounds of the chowk, flying past the Hamdard Building, the MCD Civic Center, and the Jeevan Vikas Building,. Grabbing the opportunity, two crows land on the empty circle, rushing towards the scattered grains.