The bridges of a Delhi county. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Positioned five miles outside Delhi’s eastern limits, this redbrick railway bridge is in Ghaziabad, a district in Uttar Pradesh. Composed of a series of six 70-feet-wide arches, it looks like a Roman aqueduct. Spanning the banks of the Hindon, a tributary of the Yamuna, the bridge looks best at dawn. If it is winter, the mist might be drifting over the river. Arrive at six. The road is empty at this hour; the train traffic is heavy. Sit down on the stairs that lead to the bridge. Can you hear the faint whistle of a rail engine? Yet another train is approaching. The faint echo is transforming into a roar.

A bubble of serenity. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Its name means ‘The good destination’ in Arabic. The tranquil Khair ul Manzil masjid was built in 1561 by Maham Anga, the wet nurse and foster mother of Mughal emperor Akbar. The gateway of the mosque is of red sandstone, and the rest of the structure is of rubble. The center of the courtyard is ornamented with a wazoo pool for ablution. There is also a stone well. Two water pitchers are kept beside the pool for thirsty pigeons. The birds usually keep to the mosque’s dome. They have made their home in the double-storeyed cells, which line both sides of the courtyard. Five arched openings lead to the prayer hall. The

The tomb of secularism. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is circled by the sounds of Shahjahanabad’s beggars, pavement vendors, shopkeepers, shoppers, goats, and amateur cricketers. Yet, the garden-tomb of Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed, aka Maulana Azad, remains tranquil. A freedom fighter, Azad, like millions of his fellow Muslims, chose not to migrate to Pakistan following the Indian Partition. The first education minister of a free India, he died in 1958. His resting place lies close to the dargah of his beloved sufi saint, Sarmad Shahid; it also looks to the eastern gateway of the Jama Masjid. It was on the stairs of this mosque in October 1947 that Azad famously exhorted the Muslims to “pledge that this country is

379 steps to heaven. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Size matters, sometimes adversely. Lightning has twice damaged the Qutub Minar, India’s tallest stone tower. This five-storeyed red and buff sandstone tower, with marble trimmings higher up, massaged the ego of three early Islamic rulers: Qutubuddin Aibak who laid the foundation and supervised the first storey's construction in the 12th century; Iltutmish who built the second, third and fourth; and Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who built the fifth stretching the minar to its present height of 72.5 metres. The British too made their addition. The balustrades that surround the balconies are Gothic. As part of the Quwwatul Islam mosque, it is no surprise Quranic inscriptions cover the walls. Some historians believe that Qutb

A Jama Masjid miniature. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Seven-arched facade of red sandstone. Three domes in stripes of white and black marble. Two minarets. Zeenat ul Masaajid, 'the ornament of the mosque', lies close to the Ring Road. Made in the likeness of Jama Masjid, it is one of the less grand mosques of Shahjahanabad. The short flight of steps leading up to the courtyard is entered through a dark corridor. The courtyard looks down to the playground of Crescent English Medium School. The ablution pool at the center of the courtyard is dry and partially covered with grass. The sightings of tourists are rare. Commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb's daughter Zeenat un Nissa Begum in 1707, it was one of the

Luxury of the ascetics. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Amid Delhi's dense tangle of mosques, forts and tombs, it is easy to miss the city's non-Islamic heritage. Let Jain Svetambar Temple not be one of them. The most beautiful Jain temple in the capital, it is lavishly decorated with intricate artwork on its pillars, walls and domes. Tucked at one end of a quiet alley off the main lane of the incredibly noisy Kinari Bazaar in Old Delhi, it traces its history to the Pandavas of Mahabharata times. However, the temple’s triple-storeyed marble building, dating from the late 18th century, is no relic of that mythological past. As one of the two sects in Jainism, the Svetambaras, unlike the Digambaras, believe in

The poet’s place. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Opened from sunrise to sunset, the mausoleum of Urdu poet Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan Ghalib usually remains empty. His rectangular tomb chamber is in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti, a central Delhi village named after a Sufi saint who lived here in the 14th century and whose shrine forms the area’s central focus. Mirza Ghalib died in extreme poverty in 1869. His verses and letters chronicled Shahjahanabad, or Old Delhi, at a very delicate point in its history. The Mughal capital was destroyed by the British following the 1857 Uprising. Ghalib was buried in the family graveyard of the nawabs of Loharu to whom he was related through his mother and also by his

The home of headless ghosts. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Khooni Darwaza means ‘bloodied gateway’ and legend has it that blood drips from its ceilings during the monsoon. Built by Sher Shah Suri in 1540 it is in the in the middle of the four-lane Bahadurshah Zafar Marg connecting New and Old Delhi. It was originally named Kabuli Darwaza, when Kabul-bound caravans left the city through its arched entrance. The gateway, 15.5 m high, took its present name after the Mughals started displaying the heads of executed criminals from its battlements. Soon it became a popular place to hang the body parts of unwanted princes. Emperor Aurangzeb displayed his brother Dara Shikoh's head at the gate. Prince Dara was to succeed

Reflections of faith. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Built by a Sikh general in 1783, this gurudwara, or Sikh temple, has an expansive compound and a large sarovar (holy pond). Dedicated to Guru Har Kishan, the eighth Sikh guru, it was so named because it is on the site of the bungalow of the Mughal noble Mirza Raja Jai Singh, where the guru stayed during a visit to Delhi in 1664. The gold-plated dome reflects beautifully in the rippling pond, which teems with goldfish. A corridor, skirting the pond's entire length, has a small white dome on each corner. Up the stairs from the pond is a marbled courtyard with a nishan sahib, a tall flagpole that marks every gurudwara. This