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Harmonies of Basant

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

Wikimedia Commons / Pinakpani
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Wikimedia Commons / Pinakpani

Shuma Raha
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