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
City Nature – Yamuna River, Near Hazrat Nizamuddin Bridge Nature by The Delhi Walla - September 5, 20250 City river in monsoon. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The galloping muddy water is flowing with the pace of a furious mountain stream. Trees are lying marooned in the water. White birds with long yellow beaks are perched atop the leafy crowns of these half-sunk trees. Such is the September scene about the Yamuna between Akshardham Temple and Nizamuddin Bridge. Outside the monsoon months, the same river seems slow, narrow and sluggish, giving no sense of its sprawl within the megapolis. The river in fact travels 22km within Delhi, flowing under more than 15 road bridges, travelling 48km in the entire capital region, and, in return, becoming extremely polluted by the thankless city. These days, following heavy showers, the Yamuna has breached
City Nature – Dead Tree, Lodhi Garden Hangouts Nature by The Delhi Walla - August 20, 20250 Like an art work. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Delhi’s Lodhi Garden is full of trees and monuments. One tree was itself like a monument. While it had died a long time ago, it had continued to stand, giving the park a haunting beauty. Park visitors would sit on the bench under it. Some weeks ago, the tree fell on its own accord. Days later, a spindly stalk was seen standing on the exact spot where the tree would stand. It was probably hoped that the new plant might one day grow into a tree. That stalk too is gone. Now, the spot has absolutely no sign of its recent arborous past. It is a signal to shift our affection to another
City Landmark – Sunder Nursery, Near Humayun Tomb Hangouts Landmarks Nature by The Delhi Walla - August 4, 20250 Park by numbers. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] 5 million. This is the number of footfalls Sunder Nursery has accumulated since the day it opened to us Delhiwale six years ago—according to Aga Khan Trust for Culture that created and now manages the park. The milestone was reached late last month. High time to statistically dissect a destination whose many gardens and monuments have become the capital’s capital refuge. 01/12/2018 Date of the park’s opening. 15,000 Total number of park trees. 300 is the number of tree species. 10 of these are so unique to the park—such as Brazilian Ironwood and Satin Leaf— that you won’t see them anywhere else in India. (Why so? Wait for a forthcoming dispatch!) 177 Number of benches in the park.
City Nature – Trees of Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi Hangouts Nature by The Delhi Walla - July 31, 20250 Chandni Chowk arbour. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The martyrs’ bodies were hanging from the trees, here in Chandni Chowk. That’s one of the legends Purani Dilli wale tend to recall of this Walled City avenue. The executions were said to have followed the doomed 1857 uprising against the British. Many of the trees were later felled by those colonial occupiers. Today, Chandni Chowk is overloaded with trees—unlike the rest of Old Delhi, which hardly has any. A few of the trees are even furnished with stone benches. Indeed, over the decades, Delhi’s many chroniclers have extensively dissected Chandni Chowk for its many historic monuments and landmarks. Time to make a note of its many trees as well. Let’s start with a tree