City Nature – Peepal Sighting, Around Town
A tree and its leaves. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Hauz Khas pave is coated with leaves. The culprit is standing innocently by the roadside—the tree is partly leafless. Such is the case these days with many…
City Nature – Trees, Gurugram Railway Station
Platform arbour. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The evening sun is slinking into the distant west. The air in the immediate vicinity is powdery, either with dust, or with the gathering mist, or perhaps it is simply smog….
City Nature – Songs of Semal, Around Town
Red season. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Late-February afternoon. Auto rickshaw carting the commuter along one of the loopy highways of the circuitous AIIMS flyover. Sky is pitch blue. Other sights totally unremarkable. Suddenly, a tree dotted with…
City Season – Floss Silk Flowers, Around Town
Season’s shade. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Blue is marrying into green, and green is marrying into pink. Here, near Humayun’s tomb. The blue constitutes the dome of the centuries-old Neela Gumbad; the green is the lush foliage…
City Season – Saptaparni Blossoms, Around Town
In search of flowers. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Last night was a violent night, à la Wuthering Heights. There was thunder, lightning, and for a few minutes the hissing wind raged like a storm. This overcast morning,…
City Nature – Tree Heroes, M-Block, Greater Kailash 2
Icons of a tree-lined road. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Rendered conscious by the camera, these three are standing stiffly under the long slant branch of a tree. Years ago, Dharamveer, Hasan, Azim, and a handful of others…
City Hangout – July Cloud Watching, Around Town
The pleasure of merely circulating. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Full of the pomp and stateliness of emeritus professors, they are broodily sauntering about the empty space, indulging in the rarefied pleasures of merely circulating. These clouds of…
City Walk – Monsoon Stroll, Civil Lines
Civil Lines impressionism. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A well-known couple residing in upscale Civil Lines, in north Delhi, recently checked themselves for a few days into a room at the India International Center (Annexe). Reason: their area…
City Life – Delhi Floods, 2023
The bridge under the Yamuna. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi has more than 15 road bridges spanning over the Yamuna. In the city’s worst flood in 45 years, here’s a sequence of interactions with the citizens and…
City Season – Heatwave Citizens, Around Town
June is the cruellest month. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water……
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