Just Tripping!: The Kafkaesque Year of Kenopsia

29th March 2021

When you wrote the Holi post last year, Corona seemed far off. Just like everybody else you were pretty sure it would wimper off like the past Ebola and other virals outbreaks. Trump had just left after much bromancing and many hugs. Though the situation seemed grim in USA with Governor Cuomo holding daily press conferences; here at home, it all seemed far far away.

The Beautifully lit Qutb Complex on Holi-eve

The Purple Rain of Moulmein Rosewood in Buddha Jayanti Park

And then within a matter of hours as the national corona cases reached around hundred, lockdown was announced. Overnight the skies turned blue, people could see Himalayan ranges from their rooftops, the nilgai came shopping to Mall of India only to find it closed and the puzzled cow made rounds of your streets. The weather remained spring like for most of April. This was surreal. Everything was normal and beautiful – chirping of birds, clean air, water flowing through pipes, electricity buzzing through the wires, and whatsapp notifications pinging on the phone.

And in this utopian setting there was this underlying dystopian feeling of the unknown. There was something in the air that was marking humans; making them insanely sick. Then the fatalities numbers started to rack up on the TV screens and stock markets crashed. Will there be fights for food? Will the land become lawless and taken over by these Mad Max movies like marauders. The brain played up outlandish Hollywoodian scenarios. It all seemed Kafkaesque; this all-encompassing dread and helplessness; not of the law as in the novel by Kafka but of this unseen and unknown enemy taking no prisoners that turned the landscape outside your door into Kenopsia. Is this the end as we know it?

The past year has seen so much misery and pain. People lost livelihoods and family members. Bad news kept coming in. And then there were unlikely heroes who did lot of good. God has been kind to you. Things seem to be normal again. Traffic is as bad as it always was. The thought that the pandemic would make us kinder and better remained a pipe-dream. Blue skies and clean air of last year seemed like a dream. March of all the months was at its polluted worst with almost no rain. This is the price of economy getting normal and people able to rebuild their lives. The vaccines have arrived and so has the second wave. And this time it is hitting the population that insulated themselves in their walled communities. Enough of all these dark thoughts.

It is the annual ritual day today.

A short-lived Spring came to Delhi spreading colours on the roads and parks you love. But today is hot – like almost 41 degrees hot. You don’t remember Holi this hot ever. Well what do you know - it is the hottest day in the last 76 years. But you have a date to keep. Many years ago you had climbed a fort in almost 50 degrees. All you need to do is to drive around Delhi today – it will be a walk in the park.

The Holi Route - 2021

The Changing Face of Noida

DLF Mall of India

There is a sketchy plan which will take you from South Delhi to Central Delhi to North Delhi and then bring you back to the bejewelled minar, in a roughly circular route and as always there will be a mix of monuments, empty roads, flowers, trees and street photography. Revv time!

Intelligence sources indicates blooming of Palash trees beyond the Karni Shooting Range in the Suraj Kund area. It has been a while that you visited the Tughlaqabad area. Last time you were here, you caught dengue. Hope you are luckier this time around.

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‘Holi’Day Ramblings

All you Doomsdayers and Naysayers – Eat my Shorts

The Landfill of Tughlaqabad

While Aravallis elsewhere are being hacked to fuel the construction boom, the nice denizens of Delhi have actually created their own hill. And just like the subterranean aqua channels of the hills, juices from this hill leach into the ground water, sweetening and enriching it. An ESIC hospital has popped up right at the foot of this hill. Now patients can look out of their windows breathing in the sweet smoke laden air hastening their recovery. Patients who spent a week recuperating before now recover and are ready to bolt within hours.

The milky frothy Yamuna

We talk of the mythical rivers of milk that flowed across the countryside. After decades of research and back breaking work and thousands of crores we have the river that not only has milk but depending upon the time of the day provides milk by-products too. So right now, the river is bringing layers of thick creamy mishti doi. At a different time of the day, partake of lip-smacking frothy milky lassi. You can smell the kesar flavour all the way up the bridge. Soon Delhi is expected to be the most-liveable city in the world.

'Development' eating up all the green and empty spaces

Ya rahe usar ya basey gujjar - Tughlaqabad Fort cursed by a Saint

The authorities seeing you ranting about catching dengue by one of the Tughlaqi mosquito descendants have swung into action. This area around the Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq Tomb was submerged in water once with the causeway letting the Sultan cross from his soon to be abandoned fort to his under-construction tomb. And in this water body was founded the family of the dengue mosquitoes. So, the plan is to cover the open area with construction pre-empting any chance of water accumulating during the monsoons and accidently recharging the ground and becoming the breeding ground for dengue mosquitoes.

Things are actually getting so better now.

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The Suraj Kund Road

Asola Bhati Sanctuary

The helipad at Suraj Kund has killed an entire forest

Palash

You stop at the causeway, now cleaved by the MB Road, for few moments before turning left on the road that snakes through the ridge going to Karni Shooting Range, Asola Bhati Sanctuary and to Suraj Kund beyond.

And here twinkling among the invasive vilayati keekar, are the flaming orange Palash blooms. Palash is the tree that heralds the colourful festival of Holi. Nature is wonderful. In the harshest of rocky terrains with hardly any source of water, the Palash tree with its crooked trunk and branches, dying leaves and itself seemingly in throes of last breath suddenly bursts into the most eye-catching blazing blooms as if radiating the fire from the scorching ground into the flowers.

And today, the air, the ridge is burning in the hottest day in close to a century. These are the signs of times to come. Unbothered by the heat, the Palash blooms. You are not sure for how long the trees will continue to disregard all this treatment.

You move along the MB Road. Delhi Metro boards have come up along the central verge. More trees will be cut. This time Metro wants land on the ridge. Nobody likes to see a green patch of land in the city anymore. Parks, in the name of development all are being concretised for walking paths, for open air gyms. You have no idea why we are this enormously stupid.

Qila Rai Pithora - Delhi's First City

Just before you turn right on Anuvrat Marg, on the left are the ramparts of Delhi’s First City – Qila Rai Pithora. You have visited the park few weekends before. You know the mighty walls will survive but you were not sure if this little Burj perched on a rocky outcrop had survived all these years. You are pleasantly surprised that the little guard post is still going strong though one supporting pillar is eroding fast. You will write to the helpful conservationist ASI official soon. The ridge provides the most fantastic and out-of-this-city views and still we want to demolish it all and have concrete poured over it.

On the Aurobindo Marg, in the village of Adchini lies the grave of Hazrat Nizamuddin’s mother. Yes Really!

The Mother's Dargah

Delhi apparently has two Dargahs dedicated to women. And this is the second of the two you are visiting. The first, Bibi Fatima Sam Dargah lies in the leafy government colony of Kaka Nagar that you visited few Holi ago. It is finally time to stop at the Adchini village today. Adchini lies on the road to Qutb and today you find out it is bifurcated by the road. The Dargah is in the western half.

Adchini Village, New Delhi

The village is quiet. Unlike other urban villages, this place still has some air and sunlight. Lucy Peck indicates one of the gates that probably survives from 1250 and some rear portion of a Lodhi era mosque. You can see a modern structure with a graveyard. Calling out, a man emerges and points you to the other side of this small gate. This is the gate shown in the book but the man informs that the mosque is gone – usurped by the modern concrete structure. You show your displeasure and the man is visibly chastised.

Mai Sahiba Dargah – Mother of Hazrat Nizamuddin (1250), Adchini, New Delhi

The dargah is serene. And here lies Bibi Zulekha, mother of saint patron of South Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin. Also rests here, is his sister Bibi Jannat. Wednesday is the Ruhani Dua day when every wish comes true here. This is quite a find. Maybe you will be back on a Wednesday.

Well you can only come across such scenes on Holi if you are very lucky!

Soon the land will be taken over by roads, concrete buildigs and steel plants - at Kidwai Nagar

This is Vinay Marg that would take you to your school just ahead

The perfect place to celebrate Delhi Spring - Shanti Path in Diplomatic Enclave

You are making your way up towards where the childhood happened. No ‘Holi’Day is complete without a spin in the Diplomatic Enclave. The tulips have dried up but the tricoloured rows of flowers on Shanti Path are still blooming. Spring this year has been awfully short. It was like straight from woollens to shorts. Though you got lucky to see some great sights of Semal and Caribbean Trumpet trees.

Bougainvillea Holi at Bhagwan Mahavir Vanasthali

Winding your way towards the ridge road, you stopover briefly at the Bhagwan Mahavir Vanasthali. The park has interesting mix of trees and is a bougainvillea haven around this time of the year.

The ever shrinking Central Ridge

The rare Baobab Tree in Buddha Jayanti Park

The Vande Mataram Marg runs parallel on the spine of the central ridge. In a perfect world, you would not have wanted this road bisecting the ridge and riding on its spine but then who really cares for forests or trees. On the left, you can see the viaduct of the Airport Line Metro before it bores into the rock. Everytime you look at google maps, you can clearly see concrete patches invading the greens. It is the most depressing exercise to do and within few minutes you close the maps with disgust. Everyone from politicians, law enforcers, mafia to builders are doing their best to replace the useless rocky scrub into shiny glass and concrete wonders.

The Palash tree on Vande Mataram Marg

Beyond the Shankar Marg roundabout, the road goes slender. On the right side you see a blooming Palash tree. This is the first time you are seeing a Palash by the road. Once upon a time the tree was in the middle of the forest. Now it finds itself on the verge. Maybe it will be gone the next time the morons decide to widen the road.

Deserted Karol Bagh - looking towards the giant Hanuman statue in Jhandewalan

You have been reading up on this idea of making the Ajmal Khan Road in Karol Bagh a vehicle-free and pedestrian-friendly plaza. There was some talk of planting flowering trees on the central verge. On any given day, you cannot even walk the streets here filled with Monika and her parents on a wedding shopping spree, Bunty from Rajinder Nagar getting an extra piercing loud horn installed in his Hyundai and Isha from Lajpat Nagar on a bargain hunting for an iPhone on which she plans to make pout and dance reels.

But where are the trees? All you can see is some Frangipanis in pots! Is this a scam? You don’t believe this. And this is what is Delhi all about. Within minutes you are cruising from the immaculately maintained paradisiacal Shanti Path to the Ridge to a place with faux-glitzy glass façade showrooms touting wedding wear and jewellery, trying very hard to be the Knightsbridge of Delhi for the Punjabi families turned out in their loud and garish best. On a windy and hot afternoon, grime and dirt and garbage blows around even as local characters in a post bhang stupor lounge around. Garbage lined streets will be feature from Karol Bagh to Roshanara Garden.

PS – a little digging on net reveals that the trees were dug out after the traders complained that the trees will obstruct the facades of the shops – Truly Hilarious!

A Technicolor School in Model Basti, Karol Bagh

From Karol Bagh you are making your way up the flyover on Rani Jhansi Road. You don’t ever remember coming here before. Delhi is just too huge. If not by area then by the number of houses, buildings and people it could be a whole new country. Open the google maps and go whichever way, there will be places you have never heard about before. You are certain there are settlements and colonies that come up overnight. Green spaces, forests, ridge and heritage structures are always the victims. There are just too many people in the city and this is not going to stop anytime soon. When New Delhi is being turned into concrete disaster, then the rest of the city does not stand a chance.

And then this once a flamboyant old film star now down on his luck catches your eye.

The Art Deco Piece de Resistance

Filmistan Theatre on Rani Jhansi Road, Karol Bagh

On a Friday evening, Mumtaz wearing a sequined saree gets off her tail fin Cadillac to wave at the delirious fans who have arrived to watch her latest release. In its heydays, Filmistan with its glorious art deco architecture and bold colours would have been a flamboyant edifice reflecting the optimism of its owners and the times when anything was possible.

Filmistan, Model Basti, Rani Jhansi Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi

It is a miracle that the building has still survived largely intact. Chanakya is gone and most other single screen theatres either have turned into godowns or turned into multiplexes. What is incongruous is the theatre’s location in Karol Bagh. The building is all dressed up for a date to Marine Drive or Miami. In any other city in the world, the government would have taken over the theatre, lovingly restored it and maybe opened a film museum. But it is asking too much of a speeding city to pause and appreciate - a city that largely doesn’t care for the old. When centuries old tombs have been cleaved off and have balconies hanging over them; a theatre building that has survived at all is celebration enough in Technicolor on a Friday.

The skies have dulled. It is unbearably hot. Last year it was cool and skies were blue around this time. The city today looks tired, overbuilt, grey and charmless. The Rani Jhansi Road flyover rises over the city and the railway line like a giant hungry serpent who has just seen a deer in the garden to the north. You have reached the Red Line of Delhi Metro. In the distance, the Gothic Mutiny Memorial or Ajitgarh rises. And then the penny drops.

Rani Jhansi Road - looking towards Victory Memorial

Long time ago, you had walked from the Flagstaff Tower to Ajitgarh in the Northern Ridge and took the Red Line Metro back home from the Pul Bangash station on the left. Apparently, there was a canal and a bridge built here named after Muhammad Khan Bangash, the first Nawab of Farukkhabad. The Ali Mardan Canal named after the builder and the bridge on it are both gone now (William Fraser's mansion north of St. James's Church was built on Ali Mardan Khan's mansion incorporating the original taikhana, where Fraser would spend his daytime during summer cooled by Yamuna's water). Heritage has a bleak future in the city growing at a breakneck speed. In its place, stands the recently renovated metro station. Delhi Metro used the lockdown period to give the stations on Red Line a fresh coat of paint and some new tiles.

The road becomes progressively narrower and dirtier. Mounds of garbage line up both sides of the street. This is Sabzi Mandi and here people love to exhibit their garbage in front of their houses and shops. You are now driving along the Roshanara Garden. While elsewhere there are public initiatives where volunteers gather on a weekend morning to pick up plastic waste. Here, on a daily basis the households lovingly line their streets with garbage in colourful plastic bags. Most have been ripped apart by the doggies and so a heady spunk of rotting garbage hangs in the air. Parking your car, you rush through the only surviving Gateway in the east.

Things are as bad inside.

Roshanara Garden is easily the filthiest monument garden in Delhi. Every morning, the walkers dutifully bring their household garbage and leave it by the boundary wall and the gateway. Some make an extra effort and deposit the plastic bags among the trees and scrub. Today, the Holi revellers have brought their beverage bottles and assorted namkeen and are doing their best so that the garden maintains its hard-earned reputation.

Roshanara Bagh

About 100m to the west led by now defunct water channel, is a seemingly pleasure pavilion, probably a part of now vanished Charbagh; a layout you have seen in Red Fort. The pavilion sits in the middle of a water pool. Instead of rose petalled water, fragrant candles and peacocks, we have neigbourhood kids running amok playing cricket in the sunken channels, elderly locals sit listening to a Baba delivering a Holi sermon and lots of grime for company.

There should have been more buildings here which were probably removed by the British in the mutiny aftermath. In the middle of the pavilion, there is a simple open grave that reminds you of Aurangzeb’s grave in Khuldabad, Deccan. Roshanara Begum was the daughter of Shahjahan and sister of Aurangzeb who sided with Aurangzeb during the power struggle when Dara Shikoh was ultimately killed. A friend recently located Dara Shikoh's grave in Humayun Tomb. Roshanara rose to being the most powerful woman in the Mughal court but later fell out of favour and spent her last days in this garden in middle of forest before being poisoned.

The open grave of Roshanara Begum

An intoxicated denizen lies next to the grave in the throes of sweet Holi after-effects. The arches above have some paintings surviving but are of embarrassingly poor quality. It is apparent Aurangzeb did not approve the budget and instead built himself the pretty Moti Masjid in the Red Fort. Roshanara probably spent her last years painting the flowers herself. Mughal art had decidedly declined. You will come back again to check out the trees in the compound.

Ritz Theatre - you are happy to note that the single screen theatre is still playing movies

Lothian Road - good luck crossing the road on any other day

The old St. Stephen's College Building - now Election Commision office

Lal Masjid at Kashmere Gate (1728)

It is time to move East towards Kashmere Gate. Holi afternoon is probably the only time when the bus terminus is this deserted. You are coming back here after many years. You remember making several trips to this heritage hub with the Qudsia Bagh, Nicholson Cemetery and the colonial Civil Lines to the North, Kashmere Gate and the ramparts of Shahjahanabad running west and the treasures at every step on the Lothian Road finally leading south to Red Fort, Darya Ganj and beyond to Central Delhi. It is around Kashmere Gate where the remarkable stories and friendship of William Fraser and the half-Indian Colonel James Skinner played out.

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University - the original Delhi College of Engg - this street is lined with original college buildings before they shifted to North Campus and elsewhere

St. James's Church

The St. James Church founded by Skinner definitely looks forlorn as if missing the Colonel. It needs a fresh coat of yellow whitewash to restore some joy to the disheveled grounds. The gates are locked and it is clear that getting inside churches in Delhi now is a huge challenge. Times change and mostly not the way you want them to change. Opposite is the old building of St. Stephens College and just beyond is the original Hindu College and to the other side is Dara Shikoh’s Library. The colleges will move to their new buildings up north in 40s and 50s.

Bengali Market near your high school

DTC buses hiss over the empty roads. Holi afternoon is probably the only day when you see more buses than cars. Twilight is approaching and you make your way down South driving through Darya Ganj and Delhi Gate, passing Khooni Gate where Dara Shikoh was beheaded. You are not going to Connaught Place but will stop over at the Bengali Market for some photos.

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Qutb by Night – On Holi Eve, you finally make it to Qutb by night. You have been seeing photos of the lit minar and it is time for a reprise, after about six years.

The Bejewelled Minar

There is something beautiful about experiencing Qutb in the hushed dark hours. In Qutb Complex, the moment you cross the turnstiles, you are in a wonderland that never ceases to surprise, no matter what time of day it is. Now though the evenings are extra special. ASI has done an excellent job of lighting up the complex with some nifty technology that is magical compared to the harsh sodium vapour lamps that you witnessed about six years ago. Tonight, you are not sure if the minar is illuminated by the artificial light or by the full moon light.

Like a shadow you flit across the complex silently with only a huge extended Bong family spanning across several generations for company. You are pretty sure, Bongs were the first interstate visitors to the complex when it was completed in early 13th century. There is an apocryphal story that says the first Bengali sarai was soon setup in the area now called Chittaranjan Park.

The Qutb Complex, Mehrauli, New Delhi

The focussed LED lights turn the minar into a work of exquisite jewellery, embellishing the balconies and muqarnas. You are spellbound. The marble clad upper storeys built by Feroze Shah Tughlaq seem to be washed in milk. You have about an hour before they start blowing the whistles and you try to get maximum frames along with the full moon accentuating the dark skies. Later you realise, the camera focus was always on the minar and not on the full moon. Oh well – sometimes even moon gets competition.

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On the way back home, you stop at the Barapullah to take in the Humayun Tomb, washed in its own light

The newly partly-restored Khan-i-Khanan Rahim Tomb

Epilogue

It had taken you a lot longer than expected to write this post. It was a combination of increased spreadsheet screen time and more outings on the weekends. And the story is turning grim again. Night curfews have been declared across NCR and in major cities. Railway stations are seeing people leaving for their hometowns fearing the imminent lockdowns. People are falling sick again and this time it seems the intensity is worse. There is a forbidding sense of unfurling déjà vu. Will 2021 be as miserable? Will the worst fears come true this year? It is hard to predict. Let us all pray.