Out with the old, In with the new … Part II

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I went back to the site where I’d taken the Out with the old, in with the new photo in Dec ’06 to see if the tombs there were still standing and how the area around it had developed, and was pleased to find that the tombs are indeed still there, even though the area around is developing at a pace in keeping with the rest of Delhi! Maybe these tombs are on the INTACH listing and/or are protected by ASI, though that doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent to the encroachment and demise of such monuments elsewhere! Continue reading →

A brief history of Delhi, to explain it’s urban villages

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This post explains the development of Delhi’s “urban villages” over the past few decades, and is a supplement to the Back to Dilli Darshaning post below.

To understand the idea of the urban village in Delhi, a short primer on the history of Delhi is in order. Some of you might have heard/read this stuff before at various venues, but I love to tell this tale, so here goes! Continue reading →

Jaunpur/Varanasi trip

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As always, click on an image to go to its flickr set

I’ve wanted to visit the mosques at Jaunpur ever since I first read about them in the second or third year of architecture school. This is primarily for the oversized central pishtaqs (a protruding central element on the facade) on the main courtyard facades of the mosques. Since it makes sense to take a train to Varanasi to get to Jaunpur, I decided to visit Varanasi for the first time as well. Continue reading →

Dog Day Sholay

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I put together this comparison many many moons ago, and thought I should add it to the blog. It’s between the posters of Dog Day Afternoon and (a part of the poster of) Sholay. Both movies were released in 1975, and I love the similarities – always with slight differences – between Al Pachino and Amitabh Bachchan – the stance, shirt, sleeves, collars, gun, hair, face, “angry yound man” expression etc etc. Since they were both released in the same year, I suspect it’s less a matter of ripping-off and more to do with the times!

Where are the new Dilli Darshan photos?

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Any new Dilli Darshan trips have been delayed due to inclement weather, just like the airplanes and trains in Delhi! The fog here is so bad these days that you can’t see anything, leave along photograph it. And when it isn’t plain foggy, the haze in the city is nearly as bad. In short, more Dilli Darshan trips will have to wait a few days/weeks until better weather arrives. I can’t wait to get back to them though!

Photo from The Hindu newspaper taken a few days ago