At Lodhi Garden, August light shifts from blue sky to lamp-lit paths

Sheesh Gumbad stood above the trees in Lodhi Garden as a humid August evening shifted from blue sky to darkness. A tiled track led towards the monument between shrub rows, where a man and woman paused to talk beneath a moon that had appeared over the dome.

As the sky grew darker, an orange strip stayed on the horizon and the dome became a silhouette. People sat in small groups on the sloping lawn across the path from the monument. Haze hid the stars, but the park lamps soon created separate pools of light across the grass.

Near Bada Gumbad, a larger group sat in a circle, talking and laughing; their moving phone screens remained visible after their faces disappeared in the dark. A chai vendor sat beside a walking track, with small reflections from his metal kettle catching the light.

Along the straight path, walkers came into view beneath each lamp and faded again in the unlit stretches between them. Beyond the final lamp, the garden disappeared from sight.