(Updated Delhi Metro maps are available at Chasing the Metro — 13/03/2018 Update)
Since the people at Delhi Metro still haven’t come out with a route map that I’m even half-way happy with, I decided to make one of my own! Continue reading
Author Archives: varunshiv
Transferred my Sarson ke Khet blog
I’ve transferred my Sarson ke Khet blog from Blogger to WordPress, to take advantage of WP’s enhanced feature set and ability to grow into more of a website-like experience in time. I also enjoy the mind-numbingly frustrating WP dashboard! Changes to the look of this new blog will continue for a while.
I have also created a separate blog for my Delhi Metro posts, called Chasing the Metro, and it already has an all-new metro route map made by me.
Monastery and Pagoda at Sravasti
While at Sravasti I came across this interesting monastery, which I’m assuming was built around the 1950s/60s, and started by people from Korea or Japan. The architecture is a fascinating mix of colonial bungalow, typical residential embellishments from the 50s – which include a mix of watered-down art deco and watered-down modernism, Hindu temple elements, early-Buddhist elements, ‘East Asian’ pagodas and torans etc etc. I especially love the pagoda made of brick and concrete with an octagonal base that could be part of a government or residential building anywhere in India from that time. The ‘temple’ at the back is very interesting as well! Continue reading
Sravasti
I got a chance to visit Sravasti, an important site pertaining to the life of Gautam Buddha. Of the ancient remains, there are mostly just plinths and foundations of stupas, temples and monasteries, set up in the centuries following the Buddha’s life. He is said to have lived and preached here for over two decades. Continue reading
(Don’t Be A) Shoppoholic!!
Driving around Delhi and spotted this billboard at a petrol pump (on Mathura Road, in Nizamuddin). The image looked really familiar and then I realized that it was a picture I had clicked at Dilli Haat’s Nature Bazaar a couple of Novembers back! Continue reading
Barapullah Nala in Spate
I went down to the Barapullah Nala (drain) to photograph the progress of the elevated road, and found the nala in spate because of today’s heavy rains. Here are a few photos. Continue reading
Another Usurped Gumbad
One of the side advantages of Delhi Metro is that it’s elevated sections skim over Delhi’s low roof-line (at least for now), providing long views of rooftops and the surrounding city fabric.
On one such journey on the Red Line, I spotted an old gumbad (domed building) sticking out from surrounding newer houses near the Pratap Nagar station. I got off to explore the gumbad, and of course at ground level it was much harder to spot in the maze of surrounding residential streets. Continue reading
Lodhi-ear Toilet Update: Revenge of the Modern
The “Lodhi-era toilet” coming up at Defence Colony Market is much nearer completion now, and while we’ve been spared a Lodhi tomb replica, this is now turning out to be some kind of “modern design smashing through a representation of Delhi’s past” kind of thing. So it seems a bullet has been dodged (no Lodhi-era toilet!), but this throws up a whole new set of intriguing ideas! Continue reading
Delhi’s new "Lodhi era" toilets
Okay, so when I mentioned a few posts back about dearly lacking “coordinated innovation” among the various government agencies that look after Delhi’s urban landscape, this is not the solution I had in mind! Public toilets that look like Lodhi-era tombs from the 15th and 16th centuries? Really? Continue reading
Sarson ke khet sightings in popular culture
First a sarson ke khet sightings in pop media: Continue reading
Sarson ke Khet 