Subz-Neel Bhraman: The Blue-Green Walk

Subz-Neel Bhraman: The Blue-Green Walk

Exploring the monsoon colours in the city

Launching our new concept of ‘Colour Walks’, the Blue-Green walks sets out to explore the legacy of these monsoon colours in the city.

The first part of the walk takes place in Nizamuddin, where we explore blue and green in the environs of the sacred geography of the area. We start the walk at Subz Burj (literally Green Tower), the iconic monument on the traffic island at Nizamuddin which is a 16^th century unidentified Mughal era tomb. Subz Burj was named after the green tiles that once decorated its dome, but when it was restored in 1980s, the dome’s decoration was reconstructed in blue tiles – a perfect monumental confusion to start our green-blue walk.

Sunder Nursery, India’s largest nursery, also dotted with historical monuments, is the house of greens, which we will celebrate next.

We wind around the Humayun’s Tomb enclosure to reach the 17^th century Nila Gumbad (Blue Dome), the tomb of Fahim Khan, attendant to Rahim Khan-i-Khana, an important Mughal noble. The tomb is decorated with stunning blue-green-yellow tilework, and is located just outside the Humayun’s tomb enclosure and next to the railway station – an interesting counter-point. The blue dome lives between layers of history and is an intimate secret worth revealing this monsoon.

After this first segment of the walk that explores the blue-green medieval heritage of the city, the next part will delve into the contemporary blue-green on goings in the city. Participants will be split up and each sent to various markets / localities around the area (Nizamuddin Basti / Meher Chand Market / Khanna Market / Khan Market) to discover how blue and green lives in the city. Each participant will be asked to take photographs of green / blue things they come across, and collect some green-blue things (could be anything – blues music, green vegetables, blueberry cheesecake, and the like) to show/ share with the participants when the group converges after an hour at Lodhi Garden to share and rejoice the colours! In addition, we will also snack on green and blue food, which will also be picked up by the participants on their private excursions.

Duration: 4 hours

Mode of Commuting: Walking

Meeting Point: Police Station, Nizamuddin West

Timings: Customised

Dress Code: Blue-Green (but of course!)

Images (click to enlarge)