Delhiwale: The monument without a story
Spend an evening at this Lodhi-era ruin in Green Park. It is not weighed down by history and has blended well into the cityscape.
Chhoti Gumti in south Delhi’s Green Park Colony is of no historic consequence. It is such a tiny Lodhi-era ruin that its survival is a marvel. Perhaps it was an insignificant portion of a much larger structure but nobody can tell. There is no exact historical record of it in any book of monuments.
Stories about Chhoti Gumti may have been lost in time, but that has not made it any poorer. It pulsates with modern life. The ruin lies snuggled inside a barricaded garden. People walk past it on their way to party central in Hauz Khas Village. The bourgeois houses of Green Park stand behind it.
In the morning, people are spotted seated here in perfect Yoga aasans. During the day, lonesome men lounge lazily on the grass. In the evening, elderly grandparents in the neighbourhood arrive with their grandchildren and house helps. The monument is also claimed by lovers. There are two beautifully situated benches in the garden — one lies under the shade of two intertwined trees, the other is conveniently screened by vines.
Sometimes, hormone-charged college-going gangs of friends invade the ruin, scampering around like happy monkeys.
The more sober travellers should examine the monument from all sides by slowly walking around it. The perspective is beautiful, especially if viewed from each of the four corners. Come in the evening when you are more likely to find pigeons seated on the dome. That’s a sight worth all the time spent elsewhere.