Connaught Place lights up for Diwali walks around the Inner Circle

At A Block in Connaught Place, small bulbs hanging above the entrance arch begin to glow before the evening sky has fully darkened. Once daylight fades, the wires recede and the lights form a gold-coloured canopy, while the upper windows of the Museum of Illusions behind them are lit blue.

For Delhi residents seeking a festive walk without a shopping list, the Inner Circle offers decorations across its colonnades. Families making Diwali purchases, officegoers heading to the Metro and others out for an evening walk fill the pavements beneath strings of bulbs hung from the roofs of other blocks.

A phone-cover seller has set up beneath the lights, while storefronts add their own colour to the circuit. Outside Blackberrys, two columns are wrapped in Diwali lights and adjacent columns remain unlit; a brown dog rests at the foot of one.