India, July 21 -- In Old Delhi, people often remark that there is hardly any open and serene space within the Walled City's now non-existent walls where one can spend time outdoors. Public space survives mostly inside mosque courtyards and temple compounds. Indeed, this small little-known unnamed park is one of the very very few Purani Dilli places where one can come to be with themselves.

This oppressively humid rainless monsoon afternoon, seemingly exhausted citizens are scattered across the park as randomly as fallen leaves on the ground. Along one edge of the park runs a red sandstone parapet overlooking the congested Meena Bazar, a world of dense patchwork of tin roofs and tangled cables. Through a gap appears the white canopy over ...