India, April 7 -- Dozens of roots are suspended in mid-air, hanging down the bargad tree. Grained and hued like pale wood, the texture of these aerial roots exude resilience, as if toughened by time and climate. On touching it, the coarsened root does feel like wood. The roots are anyway tightly fused with one another. Impossible to disentangle one from its neighbour. The roots in fact seem to constitute the entire trunk of the tree, something common to bargads.

Anyhow, the trunk is massive. No photo can convey a true sense of its great bulk. You have to see it in real.

The extraordinary bargad stands at Malcha Marg Market. The sleepy Central Delhi place overlooks the residences of the capital's super-privileged set. Its plazas host som...