Owl on my balcony!

My obsession with owls and photography continues. Here is a picture of one of my favourite diffusers at home. I tried my hand at a little bokeh effect. 

Sultan Garhi

On one of the last winter mornings, kissed by clouds that brought rain just minutes later, a group of us went to Sultan Garhi to go shutter crazy. I went on one of these walks after a gap of almost 2 years. The time spent in the dead man's tomb was worth all the effort of having an early Friday night and waking up early on a Saturday.

Here are the captures from this morning.

Two men, two religions, one direction

Mehrab

Sunrays

I see you

Resting place

Encircled

How many squares do you see?

Birds with different feathers

Taking off

Flight!

Nizamuddin Auliya

Delhi means a lot of things to me. It means life and love and home. The city has jewels hidden in all its crevices and corners. The one jewel that is very close to my heart is the Dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya. I don't claim to know any of the customs that are followed here or even the way to the main area of worship. But I still like to cover my head once in a while and go to the Dargah to listen to the Qawals. Here are some snapshots from my last visit.

Ladies are not allowed!

Religion has nothing to do with faith

Invoking the gods with soulful music

Faith at different levels

Lighting God's House

Calling on the gods

Eat, pray, love

Resting place

A man surrounded by roses for the god

Lodi Garden: An Urban Oasis--Walking the Familiar Path

On 5 April 2014, I along with two of my friends joined the heritage walk organized by the Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre. The walk was curated by Robinson.

It was nice to see the city through the eyes of someone who knows the history, the roads and trees of Delhi so well.

An installation at the Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre

This cool Ambassador car at the centre caught my eye and captured my heart.

Delhi was splendid in all its colours.

The sun was a jewel sparkling from behind the trees.

In so many years, this is the first time that I found out that the name of the Lodi Gardens is The Lady Wellingdon Park.

An installation in the park commissioned by the NDMC

 Spring was in full bloom!

A bee on a flower

Yellow

Spot the flower

This is my favourite photo from the day

Robinson showed us the green house at the Lodi Gardens. It was a beautiful location with bougainvillea decorating the roof. 

Bougainvillea roof

Robinson pointed out that the dustbins in the park had been painted by volunteers recently. It was fun spotting different paintings on the dustbins.

Djinn asking you to use a dustbin. 

This was our favourite dustbin from the day. It has been painted by Manil Rohit.

Archaeological dig at Purana Qila

On 19 April 2014, my friend who teaches history in a school and I went to Purana Qila. We had read news reports that the Archaeological Survey of India had opened the dig sites to the public for two days.

The evening was lovely with the sun playing with the clouds to create a dramatic sky

We saw men hard at work, using brushes to carefully dust the layers without breaking any remains

There were others who used a special knife to scrape the soil without harming any pots, bones, etc. burried in the soil.

You can see the depth of levels till which the digging has been done.

This collection of pots was dug very recently.

The present and past vessels to store water

The pieces that were excavated were washed carefully. You can spot a bone in the pile above.

Once dried, each piece was coded using a nib-pen and black ink.

A small exhibition showcased some pieces that were dug from the site.

The paintings and the colour (hundreds of years old) still look bright and beautiful.

This piece of potery is believed to be dated to the Mughal period. This piece was my favourite from the lot because of the beautiful pattern.

Though the site was open to the public there were certain parts of the exhibition where photography was restricted. But fortunately those photographs are available on the web.

We ended our trip to Purana Qila by staying for the Light and Sound Show called, Ishq-e-Dilli. You can see a post on the show done earlier, here.

The audience sat in rapt attention, savouring the visuals and the engaging commentary.

The colours of the night were pure magic.

You can read more about it here.