Above the Fray

An Aseel rooster with hard, tight deep red and black plumage, standing upright like a gentleman on a flat rooftop in Old Delhi in a white cotton kurta under a deep green Nehru jacket, wing feathers at his cuffs, a kite string tied to the iron railing beside him and running up to a green paper kite high in a hazy sky scattered with small colourful kites, rooftops, black water tanks and a white mosque dome in the distance

Every Roof Flying

By noon the sky over the old city is crowded with kites in polite contest, roof against roof, and his, tied off to the railing, has climbed clear of all of it: a small green diamond in the haze.

15 August 2026