Delhiwale: The peacocks of New Moti Bagh

It is not hard to spot a peacock in Motu Bagh. They are almost everywhere, hopping around and striking a pose every now and then.

The peacock darted down the road like a little boy, hopped towards a bungalow, sprang up and perched on the gate. Then it flew up to the roof and stood beside another peacock that was already there.

In Moti Bagh, peacocks are almost everywhere — on the pavements, beside the guard cabins, amid the flower hedges and, we presume, in the private gardens hidden behind the bungalow walls (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

It was an extraordinary sight for us but an ordinary one for the dwellers of this incredibly beautiful Central Delhi neighbourhood that is barred to outsiders. We are in New Moti Bagh. An exclusive high-security housing enclave of senior civil servants and high-ranking judges set up few years ago, this is a land of spacious residences and gardens. The air is filled with bird sounds and even the sky looks clearer than it does in the rest of Delhi. Mere mortals like us can only enter if we have friends living here.

The best thing about the place is the peacocks. They are almost everywhere — on the pavements, beside the guard cabins, amid the flower hedges and, we presume, in the private gardens hidden behind the bungalow walls.

Not long after encountering the aforementioned peacock, we spotted another one on the roof of another bungalow. This one had spread out all its feathers in that classic pose we see only in coffee-table books, except here, the backdrop was a TV dish antenna.