City Nature – Pilkhan Tree, Hauz Khas & Elsewhere Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 24, 20260 So surreal, yet so real. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A large long-armed tree is standing by a park gate in south Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village. A small crowd has gathered beneath it, this sunny evening. A band of boys—one with a guitar—is singing love songs, and mostly young listeners are standing transfixed. Others go past without stopping. No one looks up at the tree. This is not done! The tree’s leafy canopy being so magnificent. It is glowing in a shade that is neither green nor brown, but a sort of rust. The leaves do not hold just a single shade. Some leaves bear a burnt tinge, some are pigmented with a kind of faded rosiness, a few are edged with
City Season – Two Bougainvillea Trees, Lodhi Garden Hangouts Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 18, 20260 Double role story. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The two bougainvillea trees are currently in bloom, synchronising in perfect jugalbandi with each other, twinning brightly, here at Lodhi Garden. The pink flowers are drifting down continually on the ground. The pair is iconic, every Delhiwale should see it. The city itself, it seems, produces pairs in countless forms. Once you perceive the pattern, you spot it across the megapolis. Take Kasturba Gandhi Marg, where the British Council stands across the road from the American Center (both institutions are popular for their libraries, though the latter’s has severely contracted over the years). In central Delhi, statues of Russian writers stand a short walk apart: Pushkin near Mandi House, Tolstoy on Janpath. Coffee
City Nature – Falling Leaves & Blooming Flowers, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 10, 20260 Season's contrasting phenomenon. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Across the megapolis, some trees are letting go of their leaves, while others are bursting into colour. In March, Delhi stages a drama of opposites. Consider a peepal in Punjabi Bagh. Every leaf has fallen. Sunlight is passing cleanly through its branches. On the other hand in Malcha Marg, a bougainvillea is ablaze with new pink. During this time of the year, Delhi’s many avenue trees stage an annual retreat, shedding foliage ahead of the long, dry summer. The peepal is among them. By discarding leaves, such trees reduce water loss through transpiration. Bougainvillea, meanwhile, is doing the opposite. It flowers through most of the year, but peaks between March and May, as confirmed by
City Season – Pink Trumpet Tree, Lodhi Garden Hangouts Nature by The Delhi Walla - March 6, 20260 An American in Delhi. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Wednesday evening is slowly-slowly settling down over Lodhi Garden. The day of Holi is drawing to a close. High in the air, a cloud of pink appears to hang suspended. It resembles the gulal of the festival. But the colour is not powder thrown in celebration. It comes from the flowers of a tree. The flowers rise on long, leafless branches of a tree standing at the edge of the park’s central lawn. For most of the year, this tree draws visitors for simpler reasons. Its leaves cast a broad, restful shade. Beneath it sit green benches from which one of the garden’s most familiar views opens out: a panorama that
City Season – Semal Trees in Blossom, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - February 27, 20260 Delhi in red alert. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] On the morning of Holi, colour becomes a universal language. Water thickened with powder flows across terraces. Colony get-togethers dissolve into red and pink; Mummy and Papa look unrecognizable. By late afternoon, the work of body-scrubbing begins. Skin holds magenta in its pores. Nails are rimmed blue. In short, synthetic colour outlasts the fun. It is worth asking why the city’s Holi revellers do not make use of what the city already has by that time: the red semal. Though Holi is still a week away, the red semal flower has arrived. They are already falling on the roadsides. On Lodhi Road, outside a super-fancy hotel, the pavement is thick with semal.
City Nature – Pilkhan Tree, Shivaji Stadium Bus Terminus Nature by The Delhi Walla - February 13, 20260 On Delhi arbor. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The stage performer begins to dance. Arms whirl in widening circles, movements so rapid that they blur into a halo of motion, as if dozens of arms have suddenly surfaced. That is what the pilkhan tree at the Shivaji Stadium bus terminus in Connaught Place (CP) feels like. Its numerous branches seem to multiply in the air, fanning outward in restless energy. In brief, the tree is extraordinary, demanding a concentrated viewing both from up close, and from across the road. Up close, its architecture surprises the viewer. The trunk is massive in girth yet unexpectedly short, rising barely to knee-height before splintering into a network of sub-trunks. These sub-trunks climb a little higher
City Nature – February Light, Around Town Nature by The Delhi Walla - February 12, 20260 Season's luminosity. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The Amar Colony shop is shuttered at the moment. Being mid-morning, the sun has already risen. A small triangle of gold light is glistening on the shop’s corrugated metal shutter. In that fragment lies a persistence and fragility. Delhi’s daylight turns exceptional twice a year. In October, after the monsoon clears the sky, and before the winter smog arrives. And now, in February, after the cold haze lifts, and before the summer dust could alter the texture of the air. The daylight becomes almost glassy. You cannot notice this light by looking up at the sun. It is perceived where it is interrupted—on walls, cloth, stone. Then the light breaks into a pattern, showing its
City Season – 2026 Basant Panchmi, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah Faith Nature by The Delhi Walla - January 23, 20260 The return of yellow. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Red roses everywhere; including on the marble floor. The Sufi shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in central Delhi feels like a sanctuary to this flower, as it is to its 14th century patron saint. Indeed, the lanes to the dargah lie crammed with rose stalls. Pilgrims buy these roses as they walk towards the shrine, carrying the flowers as offerings. By day’s end, Hazrat Nizamuddin’s grave gets buried beneath mounds of red roses. The roses reign in the shrine throughout the year—except for one day, when the red gives way to yellow. That special day is today. This evening, the dargah will receive visitors in yellow caps, turbans and scarves. They
City Nature – Saptaparni Tree in Bloom, Connaught Place Nature by The Delhi Walla - November 4, 20250 And still it blooms. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is late Saturday evening. The air is smoggy. The season’s extreme pollution is causing the eyes to suffer from a slight burning sensation. Anyhow, life goes on. Connaught Place is packed with shoppers, and a particular species of trees here is packed with flowers. These trees are currently in full bloom. The most picturesque sight is of a giant tree that guards the mouth of Inner Circle’s A Block. It is covered with hundreds of green flowers. Welcome to the blossoming season of saptaparni, which lasts from mid-October to December. Saptaparni trees are spread across the avenues of Delhi, and its surrounding regions. A tree stands near Gurugram railway station, close
City Season – Floss-Silk Bloom, Kamani Auditorium & Other Places Nature by The Delhi Walla - October 23, 20250 Winter pink. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] We, the pitiable Delhiwallas. The extraordinarily extreme pollution of present days might spur a citizen to rue their kismet in being a citizen of this city. Or, the same citizen can follow the following directive. Put on the anti-pollution face mask, head to Mandi House theater district, and station yourself outside the Kamani Auditorium, on Copernicus Marg. Now, relax and enjoy the show. The polluted afternoon here is staging the silent musical of a floss-silk in bloom. The tree appears to be within the compound of Kamani, but it actually stands in the adjacent Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra. Whatever, the floss-silk’s abundant pink flowers are clustered closely together, resembling a giant chrysanthemum of sparks