In the narrow lanes surrounding Jama Masjid (the grand 17th-century mosque at the heart of Old Delhi), a small community of devotees keeps alive kabootarbaazi — the centuries-old practice of training and racing pigeons that flourished under India's Mughal rulers. Practitioners like 30-year-old Azhar Udeen release flocks of over 120 birds daily from rooftop terraces, spending up to four months conditioning them to fly in precise formations and return against the wind over long distances. Beyond the skill itself, participants say the rooftop gatherings serve as a communal refuge from urban stress, with one keeper describing the practice as a way to make "all the tensions from work or home disappear."