Stories · A field journal

Notes from the seven cities of Delhi.

Long-form writing on the monuments we walk through, the empires that built them, and what they mean for the people who visit today.

Rashtrapati Bhavan, the centrepiece of Lutyens' New Delhi

Seven cities, three thousand years: a short history of Delhi

The only city in the world founded, abandoned, and refounded as many times as Delhi — from Indraprastha to Lutyens, layer by layer.

The Qutub Minar in the Qutb complex, Delhi

Built from twenty-seven temples: how the Qutub Complex invented Indo-Islamic architecture

The mosque made of dismantled Hindu pillars, the iron pillar that refuses to rust, and the moment a new architectural style was first negotiated.

Humayun's Tomb at dawn

The widow's blueprint: how Humayun's Tomb wrote the playbook for the Taj Mahal

Built by a widow for her husband sixty years before the Taj, this is the prototype that Shah Jahan's architects refined into the most photographed building in the world.

The Lahori Gate of the Red Fort

Qila-e-Mubarak: Shah Jahan's Blessed Fort, and what the British called it

The Red Fort wasn't always red, and it was never named for its colour. Here's what Shah Jahan called it — and what happened inside it on the morning the Mughal empire formally ended.

1850 painting of the Peacock Throne in the Diwan-i-Khas

Takht-e-Taus: the throne worth two Taj Mahals, and the night Nadir Shah took it

Seven years to build, ten million rupees, 1,150 kilos of gold and 230 kilos of jewels — until one Persian invader carried it home in 1739. Its pieces are still scattered across three continents.

The Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya

Hunooz Dilli Dur Ast: Nizamuddin Auliya and the second Chirag of Delhi

The Sufi saint who outlived seven Sultans, told one of them "still, Delhi is far away" — and the disciple who became the actual Lamp of Delhi.

The ruins of Firozshah Kotla

Why people still write letters to djinns at Firozshah Kotla — every Thursday

Behind the crumbling walls of a 14th-century Tughlaq fort, a ritual that no historian fully explains continues every week.