Three: Body Type// Henna

Delhi in the monsoon is a muse for poetry and metaphor for romance: nestling green parrots, dancing peacocks, swinging jhoolas and much light-hearted dalliance in rain-washed gardens. The sensuality of the season comes to a head at Hariyali Teej, when girls dress up, adorn themselves with henna and sing songs.

As an ode to the long-awaited first monsoon rain, we used henna to write traditional Malhar, Kajri and Sawan song lyrics in fluid devanagari calligraphy.

Photographed at Bara Gumbad, Lodi Gardens. Graciously modeled by designer, Shubhangini Singh.

Two: Petrichor

So the weatherman’s predictions were a tad off and the monsoon’s delayed its visit to Delhi by a week. In the typervention spirit of dogged optimism, we sent out our petition to the rain-gods for respite.

Petrichor is a word for the scent of rain on parched ground after a hot dry spell. For our second typervention in this series, we stencilled it in water on Delhi’s heated roads, watching as it evaporated.

Set in the gorgeous Reina, a typeface we’ve been smitten with since last year, we cut a 2x12 feet stencil and sprayed water through it, to transfer the lettering to the ground. The roads and pathways are so hot in Delhi’s blazing 45 degrees, that the water made it smell lovely immediately and the lettering evaporated within seconds.

We carried our stencil and water spray bottles to different locations, to watch the type evaporate off different surfaces and tell curious passersby what the word meant.

Before Delhi bursts into its monsoon laments of waterlogged roads and traffic snarls, let’s revel in the petrichor awhile.

When the first rain finally comes, that is.

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Hauz Khas Village

Initial type and evaporation tests

Our hand-cut stencil. 2x12 feet

The shoot at Hauz Khas Village

Join the Delhi Typerventions group for updates and upcoming workshops.

Photographs by Manit Balmiki for Time Out Magazine and Kriti Monga at Turmeric Design.