City Monument – Stone Jaalis, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah
Screens forever. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Air entwined with stone, becoming jaali. The lattice screen has long been an element of Delhi’s architecture. One unlikely place to experience this living heritage is the sufi shrine of Hazrat…
City Monument – Madrasa Aminia, Kashmere Gate
A lesser-known beauty. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] First, the eyes are drawn to the arched pool. Then, to the greenish water in it; to the sky in the water; to the reflected crows flying in the reflected…
City Monument – Dilli Gate, Najafgarh
A namesake. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The world has many Dilli Gates. There is a Dilli Gate in Lahore. There is a Dilli Gate in Ajmer. In Bharatpur. In Aligarh. In our very own Ghaziabad. All these…
City Monument – Neela Gumbad & Subz Burj, Near Humayun’s Tomb
Blue dome’s doppelgänger. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Life would have been less complicated if our Delhi didn’t have so many monuments. And some of those look so same-same! Take the early 16th century Neela Gumbad and the…
City Monument – Unnamed Mosque, Lodhi Garden
A little known exquisiteness. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One life isn’t enough to crack the megapolis of Delhi and its NCR cousins. The microscopic magnitude of a teenie weenie lane in Roshanpura will be enough to claim…
City Life – Ghalib’s Graveyard, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] You cannot get close to Mirza Ghalib by sitting beside his marble grave. That intimacy can only be attained by reading the poet’s ghazals and…
City Monument – 40 Graves, Humayun’s Tomb
Beyond Humayun. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Humayun’s Tomb doesn’t have just Humayun’s grave—see the photo of his cenotaph (on the monument’s 70-feet-high chamber, real grave directly underneath). The 16th century mausoleum is home to 160 existing graves,…
City Monument – Bijri Khan’s Tomb, RK Puram
A mysterious ruin. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Sometimes, a book cover can be more stirring than the book itself. This is certainly true for a monument in RK Puram — its exterior is more interesting than its…
City Monument – Lodhi Garden Ruins, Central Delhi
The ‘qilas’ of Lodhi. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is a qila. That is a qila. And that also is a qila. Very common to overhear visitors to the world-famous Lodhi Garden call each of its monuments…
City Monument – Jagannath Temple, Hauz Khas Road
Vision in white. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Amid acres of dusty brown ruins, rises an apparition in spotless white. This afternoon, Sree Jagannath Mandir is looking like an edifice of ice. The only notable interruption to its…
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