Delhi’s barsati is fading from the terrace skyline

Rain lashed a deserted Delhi terrace on Tuesday, the kind of rooftop once built with a small room beside it: a barsati.

Named after the Urdu word for rain, the barsati began as shelter during sudden showers. Building rules allowed a limited room on a bungalow roof, and many of these spaces later became inexpensive rentals. They became part of the city’s cultural map, particularly for young migrants.

Painter MF Husain and artist Zarina Hashmi lived in Jangpura barsatis. Writers Amitav Ghosh and Pankaj Mishra lived in Defence Colony, while sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee had a barsati in Nizamuddin East. The 1981 comedy *Chashme Buddoor*, about three friends sharing one such room, was filmed in a Defence Colony barsati.

That address no longer has its terrace room. A May 2026 visit to the site found a multi-storey building in its place.

As regulations changed and bungalows were rebuilt with several floors of rentable homes, a single rooftop room made less financial sense for owners. Many of the old colonies now have few terraces left to hold a barsati.

In Nizamuddin, a real-estate agent says one barsati remains, with two bedrooms and monthly rent of Rs 35,000. It is a long way from the modest, single-room rentals that shaped the older barsati life.