Harmonies of Basant

Sadly, there is no messiah of tolerance today who speaks the language of universal love

The lanes are narrow, winding, and flanked on both sides by old, crumbling houses that seem to want to careen into the road. There are hole-in-the wall shops and vagrant dogs that sniff hopefully at you. It’s a shabby place — one of India’s many overcrowded, down-at-the-heel urban localities that could do with some sprucing up. The yellow winter sun doesn’t quite reach the dank gullies here. Yet there’s a riot of sunny yellow shimmying around Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti today. It is Basant Panchami, the day that marks the arrival of spring. And decked out in bright yellow, the vibrant