Three places to best enjoy the Delhi monsoon

The Hindustan Times lists a few places where you can enjoy the rain.

A little tap on the window-pane, as though something had struck it, followed by a plentiful light falling sound, as of grains of sand being sprinkled from a window overhead, gradually spreading, intensifying, acquiring a regular rhythm, becoming fluid, sonorous, musical, immeasurable, universal: it was the rain.

The Metcalfe’s Folly is a hexagonal structure in south Delhi’s Mehrauli Archaeological Complex. (Mayank Austen Soofi/HT Photo)

These are Marcel Proust’s words from his novel In Search of Lost Time. The French author never visited the Indian capital but his description perfectly fits Delhi monsoon’s first great shower.

Here are a few places in the city where you can feel the monsoon as intensely as Proust.

1.Pack yourself with a novel you don’t want to be publicly seen with, along with a thermos flask filled with masala chai, and head to Metcalfe’s Folly. A hexagonal structure in south Delhi’s Mehrauli Archaeological Complex, it stands at the top of a grassy mound and provides a magnificent view of Qutub Minar and other nearby monuments such as Jamali Kamali mosque. Don’t panic when the rain starts. You remain dry under the stone canopy.

The Metcalfe’s Folly in Mehrauli stands at the top of a grassy mound and provides a magnificent view of Qutub Minar . (Mayank Austen Soofi/HT Photo)

Nearest metro station: Qutub Minar

2.Now we tell you literally a poetic place to experience the monsoon. Head to Ghalib Academy in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. Ignore the crowd in the auditorium even if poets are offering their Urdu verses in Ghalib’s memory. The centre was built in the 1960s in memory of Delhi’s great 19th century poet. Walk up the stairs to the library on the first floor--entry is free to all. Pay no attention to the people dozing over books or newspapers.

Mirza Ghalib’s tomb in Nizamuddin. (Mayank Austen Soofi/HT Photo )

Walk past the hundreds of dusty Urdu books and enter the reading room in the end of the hall. Sit on the chair and look down the window. You will see the monsoon rain lashing down furiously on the marble floor of a courtyard right under the window. That’s Ghalib’s tomb. The sight is memorable. Come with a poetry book, of course.

Nearest metro station: Jangpura

3.Hanging out in the upper floors of cafes and restaurants in south Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village gives a cozy feeling as you down your drinks while watching the rain fall outside the large windows. But these places don’t give even half the pleasure that is offered by the Hauz Khas monument – we are talking of Feroze Shah Tughlak’s tomb and the adjoining madrasa in the area.

Feroze Shah Tughlak’s tomb and the adjoining madrasa in Hauz Khas village. (Mayank Austen Soofi/HT Photo)

With interlinked chambers and balconies, the 14th century ruins offer an unhindered view of Deer Park and the Hauz Khas lake. The sounds of ducks and peacocks add to the magic. Come with your partner, obviously.

Nearest Metro station: Green Park