Sarson ke Khet

Transferring my Sarson ke Khet blog

2011-08-24T18:36:00.003+05:30

I'm transferring 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! This Blogger site will stay online for a little while, and if I'm happy with WP I'll discontinue this blog in time.

The new Sarson ke Khet blog is available here. Changes to the look of the blog will continue of 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

2011-05-10T08:30:00.005+05:30

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!

Monastery buildings

Pagoda

Temple at the back of the complex

Decorated ventilation/light opening

Sravasti

2011-05-10T07:55:00.007+05:30

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.

I didn't spend much time at Sravasti, so did not get too many details of individual structures etc.

Structures in the Jetavan monastery complex

Ghandha Kuti

Monasteries and temples

Anathapindika's stupa within the city walls of ancient Sravasti

Reconstructed walls of the stupa, with decorations

Delhi Metro Phase III planned routes map

2011-05-01T23:31:00.004+05:30

Google map with updated Delhi Metro phase 3 planned routes. The dark lines are phase 1 & 2 active routes. Lighter lines are planned phase 3 routes. The blue line is the airport express line. Click on the static map below to get to the Google map.

Phase 3 planned routes

The next map shows what the system will look like once phase 3 is complete. The colors on the map match the actual line color-codes (for all known color-codes).

What the system will look like once phase 3 is complete

(Don't Be A) Shoppoholic!!

2011-04-30T20:11:00.009+05:30

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! Apparently the billboard is by the Delhi Govt to promote shopping in the city. They obviously got the image from my Flickr account, where the pics are free for download and use as long as the users attribute the original pic to me. This being the govt though, there was no attribution nor any intimation that they were using the pic. Oh well! I still got a kick of seeing one of my work on a billboard!

The billboard

Close up

And the original image

Thankfully the image they've put up is one of shopping for fabric in Dilli Haat, and not, for instance, jewellery at some fancy Delhi zevar ki dukan! Still, since they used my picture to promote consumption, I feel compelled to a tiny rant on the topic: shop/consume in a way that leads to a more equitable society, not in a way that leads to a more unequal and polarized society!

Cheers!

PS: No idea where they got the spelling for "Shoppoholic" from - obviously they were trying to go for "Shopaholic"! Maybe they conflated shopaholic with the trend (current? past?) to name things "Shoppe" in Delhi/India.

On and Around the Delhi Metro: Blue Line - Anand Vihar section

2010-09-12T14:59:00.001+05:30

Exploring the short Anand Vihar section of Delhi Metro's Blue Line in east Delhi highlights two interesting points that are commonly noted about the metro system in general: 1) The connection between the metro system and increased commercialization of place, and 2) that the metro is changing people's understanding of distances between locations in the city. More on both points follow.

The same photos are also on flickr.

Yamuna Bank

This is the interchange station between the Noida and Anand Vihar sections of the blue line. Situated on the floodplain of the river Yamuna, it's a bit isolated and distant from the closest formal habitation. Embankments protects the station (and it's adjoining metro depot) from the river when in spate.

Yamuna Bank station to the left and the intersection of Vikas Marg and Link Road to the right

Trains from both Noida and Anand Vihar lines approaching the station

Blue line and Link Road heading towards Noida

Lakshmi Nagar

Approaching Lakshmi Nagar station

Foot-over-bridges connecting the station to different sides of the road intersection

Station and road intersection

Station and surroundings

Nirman Vihar

Approaching Nirman Vihar station

Nirman Vihar station with the Lakshmi Nagar Commercial Complex and V3S Mall adjoining

This is the station/area that made me realize how conceptions of distance are changing because of the metro. I've only driven by the Lakshmi Nagar Commerial Complex a few times, and that too not for many years now, but to me it seemed really far and a long drive away. With the metro, it's now just a few stops away from the heart of Delhi, and with the expanding system over the years will become easily accessible from all parts of the city.

Similarly, with the opening of the Gurgaon metro line, a trip to/from Gurgaon already seems like a much less daunting task. Access to different parts of the city will, both conceptually and literally, become much easier, and just as in cities like London and New York, any particular location will be just a metro ride away.

Preet Vihar

Preet Vihar station and adjoining commercial complex

Formerly residential area around the station turning commercial

From these photographs, the nexus between commercialization of neighborhoods and the metro is quite evident. Metro stations were from the beginning planned close to commercial areas, and the areas around many stations are becoming increasingly commercialized, whether they were so before or not. At this Preet Vihar station, buildings that were clearly residential are changing in their nature, and new construction is also much more commercial.

The story through much of Delhi is the same, and the expectation is that the areas around metro stations will become hubs of commercial activity, with residential areas a little distance away. Increased commercialization of the locations around metro stations has always been one of the strategies for revenue generation by the metro, and it seems to be succeeding. This will likely be one of the main ways that metro will alter the built landscape of Delhi in the short to medium term.

Anand Vihar

This terminal (for now) metro station interchanges with the Anand Vihar ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal) and Indian Railways station.

Anand Vihar metro station ...

... close to the ISBT

... as well as the railway station

On and Around the Delhi Metro: Green Line

2010-09-03T13:34:00.001+05:30

I thought I'd finish exploring and photographing Delhi Metro's existing lines before the (entire, for Phase 2) Yellow and Violet lines open, but of course this post goes out on the day the yellow line extension becomes operational! In any case, here are photos from the far flung (at least from where I live) Green Line, which turns out to be a very interesting line to visit.

Heading almost due west on Rohtak Road like an outstretched tentacle out of "inner" Delhi, the green line reaches Mundka via Nangloi. After it crosses the Outer Ring Road, the scenery seems to progressively change from that of Delhi to that of small-town Haryana, and the road becomes lined with rows of small concrete-box shops with their steel shutters up, or small-scale industrial buildings. By the time the metro crosses Nangloi, we could easily be passing through a small town in Haryana rather than Delhi.

I guess Delhi the idea (in all it's craziness and multifariousness) still has to reach many parts of Delhi the state! This statement is surprising even to me, because there is so much of "not-Delhi" even in the heart of Delhi, and yet places like Mundka do not feel like other parts of the city. I guess what this means is that places like Mundka have not had even a touch of Delhi brought to them yet, even though they are well within Delhi state.

Here's a link to the images below at my green line flickr set. Clicking on the images here enlarges them for full effect.

Inderlok

Currently the green line starts at the Inderlok station, where it interchanges with the Red Line at it's eastern-most point.

Panoramas of Inderlok station, with it's mall to the left. Green line platforms are to the right

The green line side of Inderlok station

Soon after leaving Inderlok station, the green line passes uncomfortably close to houses at Tulsi Nagar

Note the barrier on the metro line at the point nearest to the buildings

Shivaji Park

Paschim Vihar West

Metro station alongside residences

Metro station as visible from the nearby residential colony

Peeragarhi

Metro line crossing the outer ring road at Peeragarhi

Udyog Vihar

Surajmal Stadium

Rohtak Road below metro line at Surajmal Stadium station

Looking towards Surajmal Stadium station from Nangloi

Nangloi

Nangloi station and flyover

Buildings demolished for the metro line at Nangloi

This image is a composite of two photographs so the perspective is a bit askew, but it shows the metro line and an inside street

Looking towards Nangloi RS metro station from Nangloi

Rajdhani Park

This is where things really begin to look like Haryana!

Mundka

Mundka station - the current terminal station for the green line. Haryana continues all around the metro station/line!

A metro pillar almost trampling a sweets shop

Mundka station panoramas from the parking lot

Rohtak Road under Mundka station

Demolished buildings adjacent to Mundka station

Barapullah Nala in Spate

2010-08-19T17:39:00.007+05:30

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.

The first photo is of the nala at the railway line near Nizamuddin Railway Station. There is no gap between the water and the railway bridge's girders, and all kinds of flotsam is accumulating at the girder. The water level has reached the settlement at the right of the image. Construction work on the elevated road to the left is continuing despite the spate.

Barapullah Nala at the railway line near Nizamuddin Railway Station. Click on image to enlarge

These next images are from the elevated road construction site at Mathura Road. Construction-related vehicles that were in the nala have at least half their wheels submerged!

A truck, earth-mover and large crane inside the swollen nala. Next to the truck is a large pre-cast segment of the road. I don't think there is any danger of any of these washing away, though!

Here are images of the elevated road construction, which I'd gone to photograph.

At the railway line and old Barapullah bridge near Nizamuddin railway station (Click on these images to enlarge)

And at Mathura Road

Another Usurped Gumbad

2010-08-19T11:48:00.006+05:30

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. After some nosing and asking around, which included a classic exchange between me and a street vendor, that went something like this (in Hindi of course):

Me: "Do you know where the old gumbad is?"
Vendor: "What?"
Me: "There's an old gumbad somewhere around here, do you know where it is?"
Vendor: "You mean that thing right behind you?"

I turned around, and of course the gumbad was encroached on all sides, and people had put up property walls all around the structure, but luckily on three sides you could at least see the original walls of the structure. I asked people at a goods godown (which was one of the surrounding encroaches) if I could take a couple of shots of the place. They allowed me to, but unfortunately the photos I took were overexposed. Here is the best of the lot - you can see the top of the dome of the (probably) late Mughal structure peeping out from behind the tin roofs and foliage.

Lodhi-ear Toilet Update: Revenge of the Modern

2010-07-27T15:34:00.005+05:30

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!

The new public toilet at Defence Colony Market

The design concept for this structure seems to have been that a that modern, world-class (since that is such a catchphrase these days) Delhi, represented by the glass, steel and aluminum facade, is breaking through the old, staid stone edifice of a Delhi of the past. The technological advancement of today is (finally!) breaking through simple, low-tech yesterday. Worldliness is breaking through unrefined indigenousness.

However, to me, the stone edifice represents not just the Delhi of earlier centuries, but could also refer to the Delhi of earlier "government-sanctioned" modernism from the 1960s-80s, which used a lot of stonework of this kind. In this way, it represents the gleaming facade of today's "public private partnership" (PPP) model breaking through the older facade of complete government project-control. Nehruvian modernism, which itself tried to break free of the past, is now pushed into and lumped with that past, with all it's connotations of "failure" and the need to break free from it.

Of course this is reading a lot into a public toilet (with a cafe above it), and it might just be a much more jocular and playful interplay of old and new to attract tourists, but if there is at all an intention to represent a break, then I'm pretty sure it's not just a break from the far away and thus benign era of Delhi as necropolis, but also a reference, even if just associatively, to a much more recent past as well.

I also have to add that for some reason, these toilets are nearly as well guarded as Rashtrapati Bhawan is - there are guards posted on all sides of the structure, and even a few thugs lounging about with the guards. It took all my photographing wiles to take these photos! Maybe it's just the contractor's men, maybe this is the usual modus operandi for commonwealth games construction and this one is just much more noticeable because it's out in the public, or maybe the builders are so pleased with their design that they don't want anyone copying it!

Whatever the answers are to all these issues, from the beginning, this take on public toilets has just been a weird and fascinating exercise! We also need a new name for these toilets, since "Lodhi-era toilet" is no longer applicable. "New Indian neoliberal public toilets", perhaps? :)

Delhi's new "Lodhi era" toilets

2010-07-13T11:40:00.003+05:30

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?

Public toilets under construction at Defence Colony Market

These new "world-class toilets" (that's the term that was repeatedly said to me by people at and around these construction sites when they were at a nascent stage) look like they're the crazy brainchild of some MCD and ASI officials who had had a few pegs of Solan No.1 too many sitting together one evening (I'm not claiming that this actually happened)!

While the finished product of this example at Defence Colony Market is yet to be seen, I really don't know what they were thinking. Why make a public toilet look like some of Delhi's most visible historic landmarks?

If anyone is wondering why these toilets are on two floors, the ground floor houses the toilets themselves, and the floor above (with a mezzanine as well, I think) will be a cafe or restaurant. Go figure!

To be fair though, others I've talked to don't think this is a bad idea, and actually like this structure as it comes up. Others still think it will encourage pissing in the actual tombs strewn about Delhi. I guess we'll have to wait a bit more to see how all this shapes up ...

Sarson ke khet sightings in popular culture

2010-06-14T16:57:00.007+05:30

First a sarson ke khet sightings in pop media:

This is an ad(/public service announcement) for a serial on some TV channel known as "Star Gold". Note the sarson ke khet flowing in the breeze behind the girl - symbolizing her simplicity, purity and good old traditional Punjabi values! Note her longing but weary gaze at the airplane that brings her NRI groom and her passport to happiness! Note the airplane tearing the red wedding cloth into two, symbolizing the troubles ahead with obtaining that happiness passport! Too good!

And on a more political note, a sarson ke khet sighting in the news media, and on the Indo-Pak border no less! Or at least I'm assuming it's the Indo-Pak border (on which other border will you find sarsok ke khet leheraofying anyway?). Also note that the sarson ke khet seem to be on both sides of the border! I wonder on which side the mustard is greener (answer - NEITHER/BOTH)!

(TOI May 25th)

Spice sellers at Pul Banagah

2010-06-05T17:46:00.003+05:30

More from my Delhi Anonymous set of photos ...

Jumping the Gun on Delhi's Light Rail and Monorail Plans

2010-03-05T11:44:00.010+05:30

Following up on the Delhi Metro Phase 3 map I made a while ago (and also various metro maps using Google Maps), I've made another map - also on Google Maps - that incorporates planned Light Rail and Monorail projects as well. Click on the image below to go to the map.

The impetus for this map was the Delhi Chief Minister's recent declaration that monorail plans (and presumably light rail plans though the news reports did not mention her talking about light rail) have not been canceled but rather postponed till after the Commonwealth Games. I remembered seeing maps of proposed Light Rail and Monorail routes on the DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System) website, and used those to make the map above.

If anything, these light rail/monorail routes are even more speculative than the metro phase 3 maps in this and previous maps, but this map is a possible representation of what Delhi's multi-modal urban rail system might look like by 2015.

A couple of observations regarding Delhi's infrastructure projects in general and the proposed rail routes/systems:

By this point, it looks like the October 2010 Commonwealth Games are holding up as many infrastructure projects as they are instigating. I believe a while ago the CM said that major road-improvement projects have been shelved till after the games, and now these urban rail projects have as well, and I'm sure a whole set of other projects must have been shelved too. I guess it's really good that the games have provided the impetus for the projects that have been built and are under construction, but I'm now waiting for those projects to become up-and-running, as well as for the games to be over and done with, so we can concentrate on these further infrastructural projects. Hopefully the momentum of construction and development will not slow down after the games, because the city really needs a lot of work!

My other observation is about monorail vs light rail vs BRT (bus rapid transit) as the "light transit" supplement to metro. I'm becoming more and more skeptical about BRT, because there are so many vehicles on the roads in Delhi, and traffic is so undisciplined, that the roads really cannot support a rapid bus system, and people cannot realistically be expected to change their driving behavior anytime soon. Delhi needs three lanes for traffic, and for sure the roads need to be improved, standardized and the private bus system overhauled as is being done, but the BRT system just takes up too much space on already crowded roads.

What we need instead is a completely grade-separated light transit system that is totally removed from the road system, and can penetrate many parts of the city. To accomplish this, I think the only way to go is elevated. And for this reason, I think monorail might be an even better option than light rail. Monorail becomes advantageous over light rail only if the entire system is elevated, at which time it's smaller footprint both on the ground and visually in the air, as well as possibly greater maneuverability, make it appealing. So instead of a BRT system, another option is to concentrate on a monorail system criss-crossing the city. That will leave the roads free for improving the situation for public transport, private transport as well as for pedestrians.

Of course I'm not an expert on any kind of monorail vs light rail debate, but I feel that light rail (as well as BRT systems) work better when roads are emptier and space (for at-grade interchange etc) is more abundant than in Delhi. At the same time, Delhi roads are not as narrow as those of a city like London, making it possible to devise a good functional bus system that is not BRT. A widespread monorail system will free up the roads for improvement, whereas BRT will narrow the roads unnecessarily. These are just my views as of now, and they might change in light of more information, but this is MHO for now!

Barapullah Elevated Road and Khan Khana's Tomb

2010-02-26T18:17:00.007+05:30

A short note to follow up on my post about construction work for the elevated road around the Barapullah bridge, in which my concluding remarks were that the separate governmental authorities need to really work together cohesively in Delhi to accommodate both conservation and development, and use Delhi's historic architecture as a unique facet of the city. Unfortunately, it looks like another section of the elevated road construction may indicate that examples of such collaboration are pretty hard to come by.

I'm talking about the stretch of the elevated road that passes in front of Khan Khana's Tomb, also in the Nizamuddin area. Khan Khana was one of the Navratans in Akbar's court, and is the same person as the poet Rahim of 2-line dohas fame.

Khan Khana's tomb hidden behind the under-construction pillars of the Barapullah Nullah elevated road

News articles from previous months state that part of the ASI's objection to the elevated road was that it will obstruct the view of Khan Khana's tomb from the adjacent Mathura Road. Due to this objection, the height of the elevated road was to be raised at this point, so that it passed over the view-line of the tomb from Mathura Road. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the under-construction pillars for the elevated road that lie to the east of Mathura Road, the side that the tomb is on, are right adjacent to Mathura Road, and block the view to the monument anyway. So despite the raised road height, the pillars themselves will obstruct the view of the tomb.

A closer view of the tomb and pillars. The billboard also blocks the view to the tomb, but that's a minor issue compared to the obstruction the pillars will cause

It could be argued that the proximity of the pillars to the road was required to span the road, but much larger spans are being bridged on this road itself, so the special situation of this location should definitely have warranted the extra expense of a larger span. On top of this, the pillar to the west of Mathura Road is pretty far from the road, for no apparent reason (see the panoramic photo below).

Panoramic view of the elevated road construction over Mathura Road. The pillars to the left (west) of the road are set back from Mathura Road when they needn't be, and the pillars to the right (east), which should have been set back from Mathura Road to maintain a clear view of Khan Khana's tomb (which is in the center background) from the road, aren't. Sad irony that is all too common here in Delhi (click image to enlarge)

Of course factors such as foundational needs could have dictated the placement of these pillars, but it seems really odd that the pillars east of Mathura Road couldn't have been shifted a few meters further east, thus not negating the effect that raising the elevated road is to accomplish.

To me, this seems to be just another example of bad, non-creative planning and lack of coordination.

Nila Gumbad in the News (too)

2010-02-02T21:08:00.004+05:30

Since I wrote about Nila Gumbad and the dispute between the Railways and ASI in my previous blog post, I thought I'd go visit Nila Gumbad once again to see just what the situation was there, how close the railways line was to the monument etc. I've visited Nila Gumbad a few times before, but had always just seen it from the west - from the side of Humayun's Tomb.

The image below shows Nila Gumbad and the area around it, taken from close to the eastern pavilion that lies along the outer wall of Humayun's Tomb. The road that the ASI wants to reroute around Nila Gumbad currently passes between the monument and Humayun's Tomb. It's also very probable that in constructing the road, the arched wall connecting Nila Gumbad with Humayun's Tomb was broken, which the ASI probably wants to restore as well.

Nila Gumbad from Humayun's Tomb. The railway line is visible behind the gumbad, and the road that the ASI wants to reroute lies in front of the gumbad

On this visit I went around to the east of the monument, on the side of the railway line, and was quite shocked to see that the Nizamuddin railway station starts right next to the monument! So it's not just that the railway line passes very close to Nila Gumbad, but the railway station also begins right there. An approximately 5 meter wide area has been left around the monument, and then the railway property beings. The station and railway lines lie to the east of the monument, and there is some kind of railway storage area to the south of it. The panoramic shot below is taken from north of the monument, and shows the proximity of the station, railway line and monument.

Panoramic view showing the railway station and gumbad . Click to enlarge

As can be seen from the panoramic shot, a dirt path leads from in front (north) of the monument, which leads to a spot that is used as an informal crossing across the railway lines to the other side, i.e. towards Serai Kale Khan. I saw quite a few people using this path to cross the railway lines (there is no designated crossing on this side of the railways station). There is of course the issue of security vis-a-vis the railway station, since anyone can easily walk from here onto the platform.

But the closeness of the station really makes me see the railways point of view. There is hardly any space to construct a road around the monument on this side, and any changes to the railways station and storage area will require at least a bit of a re-think and re-design, though if they put their heads to it I'm sure they can get to a workaround (pun intended).

The board indicating the beginning of Nizamuddin railway station is clearly visible from the gumbad platform

A couple of shots of Nila Gumbad - showing the blue tile-work that give the monument it's name and make it unique

Barapullah In The News

2010-01-28T21:01:00.024+05:30

An image of Barapullah I took sometime in 2009, showing its basic design and construction (and the ganda nala - dirty drain - flowing under it)

Barapullah is an early 17th century bridge close to Humayun's Tomb and Khan Khana's Tomb in the Nizamuddin area. The monument has been in the news recently as part of the ongoing tussle between the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) in Delhi on one side, and various other governmental bodies (such as the railways, Delhi metro, MCD, Commonwealth Games people etc) on the other, playing out an intra-government-department preservation-versus-development urban slug-fest. This fight has been brought to a head by the ongoing rush of infrastructural projects in Delhi in general, and Commonwealth Games related projects in particular.

As Delhi scrambles to complete these infrastructure projects before the October 2010 Commonwealth Games, the ASI is attempting to block those projects that come too close to the monuments under its protection (apparently no construction within 100 meters of a protected monument is allowed - a rule that obviously hasn't been followed too strictly for the past five decades since it's been in place).

The Barapullah Nala (drain/rivulet), which the Barapullah bridge spans at Nizamuddin and which snakes through part of south Delhi, is being used as a path for an elevated road that will connect the Ring Road near Serai Kale Khan with Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, and is intended to ease traffic flow between the stadium and the Commonwealth Games Village on the east bank of the Yamuna. Some of the pillars being erected for this elevated road are just about 10 meters away from Barapullah.

So the Barapullah example is being publicized in the media as the most egregious case of flouting the "no construction around monuments" rule. While this is definitely the case, I just wanted to bring to light the existing state of the Barapullah monument, current elevated road construction notwithstanding. Newspaper reports give the impression that Barapullah was a well-preserved monument, or at least a somewhat-preserved one, whose protected space is only now being violated by the elevated bridge construction. In reality Barapullah has been anything but well protected over the past decades. In fact, Barapullah is a unique example that indicates all that is wrong with the preservation process.

The first problem of course is that the nala which flows under the bridge has been an open sewer for a long time. However, what makes the current concern over the new elevated road construction so ironic is that a concrete bridge, parallel to Barapullah, has existed about 3 meters away from Barapullah for at least a couple of decades. I have a vague memory of using Barapullah itself as a thoroughfare road to cross over from Jangpura to Nizamuddin as a kid, but the parallel concrete bridge has existed for all my adult life. This parallel bridge is now used for heavy throughfare (it leads to the close-by Nizamuddin railway station and in fact a blue-line bus route terminates here), and Barapullah itself is the site for a makeshift daily market. The parallel bridge was probably constructed to divert vehicular traffic from Barapullah, but surely it needn't have been built just 3 meters away from it.

The approach to Barapullah, on which a makeshift market is now set up daily. This and all following images were taken on Jan 25, 2010

The decades old concrete bridge running parallel to Barapullah is visible behind the small turrets of Barapullah, and is just a few feet away from it

The images below clearly shows the proximity between the original Barapullah and the parallel concrete bridge. We can also see the sewage and garbage accumulated at the foot of Barapullah, as well as the high-tension electricity pylon built very close to Barapullah. The columns under construction in the central middle-distance are for the proposed elevated road. The main north-south line of the Indian railways passes close to Barapullah as well. All in all, not a very picturesque locale, to say the least, and with all kinds of preservation-law violations all around.

Parallel concrete bridge and Barapullah

Barapullah from the parallel bridge

Vendors on Barapullah with the under-construction elevated road's columns behind

I would estimate the closest column of the elevated road to be about 10 meters from Barapullah, while the existing parallel bridge is about 3 meters distant from Barapullah

Elevated road construction with Barapullah behind

A panoramic view of Barapullah, its parallel bridge and the elevated road construction. In the background on the right we can see the base of the roadway itself being set up over the completed columns. On the left, through the steel-mesh fencing, is visible the other side of the elevated road construction. Click to enlarge

The elevated road construction approaching Barapullah. The main north-south line of the Indian railways lies in front of it. This view is looking eastwards towards the Yamuna from Barapullah

Here are a couple of images of construction on the other side ... looking westwards, taken from the parallel bridge. The dome of Khan Khana's Tomb is visible in the background.

What does all this tell us?

As we can see, the setting of Barapullah is a real mess. It has a heavily trafficked parallel bridge mere feet away from it, a large electricity pylon close by, an open sewer passing under it, a major national railway line passing close by, and is used as a makeshift market space. It has no protected area around it, and is surrounded by garbage and dirt. The elevated road being constructed over it, with its columns a few meters away from Barapullah, will not so much ruin the setting of Barapullah as add to the misfortunes of the monument.

Barapullah is a unique example, because it has various factors acting against it. Usually with monuments in Delhi it is a simple case of real estate pressures that threaten them. If the government/ASI can acquire the land around the monument to preserve it, as in the case of Humayun's Tomb and Khan Khana's Tomb nearby, the monuments can begin to be protected, and if they can't get to the monuments in time, like in so many urban villages in Delhi, the monuments are encroached upon or right up to.

Being a bridge that spans a nala running through a major portion of south Delhi, Barapullah was never going to be encroached in that same way, but rather was going to be targeted by infrastructural entities that require a clear path through the city, like the high tension electricity pylons and now the elevated road. Being close to the Nizamuddin railway station, there was heavy traffic on Barapullah in the past, which is now diverted to the parallel bridge built next to it. Being on an open drain (once a tributary of the Yamuna on which temple ghats existed - and still do), there is always going to be untreated sewage lapping the base of the monument.

To me, the Barapullah situation encapsulates the dysfunction of our government (and of us). The slums and squatter settlements around the monument, which exist in the liminal space along the open drain and railway line, are a function of the lack of public housing, and are the reason why the makeshift market exists on the monument (though the market also serves the residential neighborhoods away from the immediate vicinity of the monument).

Apathy towards historic monuments and good planning practices in general, and apathy towards generating creative solutions to urban problems has led to the parallel road next to Barapullah, and the traffic mess in the area overall, created by the busy Nizamuddin railway station nearby. The railway station, which continues to grow in importance, has for long needed an efficient traffic scheme that also caters to the protection of Barapullah, but the various government bodies that are required to be involved for such a scheme to succeed seem unable to collaborate to design and implement it.

In the face of all this apathy, finding alternative and natural solutions to wastewater management, which these open drains in Delhi would seem ideally suited for, remains a pipe dream, which is the reason why the black water flowing under Barapullah continues to ooze by freely, adding to the vast sewer that is the Yamuna.

Where does the recent news-coverage fit into all this?

Apart from the fact that the newspapers should send someone down to check on the situation of Barapullah before indicating that the new elevated road is violating the space around it, the reporting on the feud between the ASI and other government bodies points to just why so much dysfunction occurs. The fact that the ASI has not been able to coordinate in the construction of the elevated road indicates the lack of collaboration and creative solution finding that has led to the construction of the parallel bridge next to Barapullah, and the traffic mess around the Nizamuddin railway station.

Another nearby example - the Nila Gumbad monument - also in the news recently, points to the same lack of collaboration and indeed blatant antagonism between government departments. This monument lies on the strip of land between the Humayun's Tomb compound and the same railway line that passes close to Barapullah. Humayun's Tomb is a World Heritage site, and the ASI wants to incorporate the Nila Gumbad monument, which is also a Mughal-era structure and an important example of Persian influence on Mughal architecture, into the overall Humayun's Tomb complex. To do this, they requested the railways to allow a narrow road that cuts through the space between Nila Gumbad and Humayun's Tomb to be re-routed around Nila Gumbad, and onto railway land. The railways of course have refused this request.

The recent news coverage has exposed not just current feuds between such government departments, but also shows us how such apathy and dysfunction have existed for so long. No one wants to help the other, and no one wants the trouble of getting to creative, collaborative and long-lasting solutions to problems. If I'm permitted to extend this argument, this is the case not just with the government, but with the attitude of the public as well.

Are there any signs of hope in all this?

I actually think that there might be hope in all this. The fact that long-dormant ASI rules are being brought up might indicate that there is enough (developmental, infrastructural) activity at an urban scale, and adequate media and public scrutiny being placed on that activity, to force governmental departments to make their disputes public and legal.

Hopefully, as large-scale infrastructure projects mushroom in Delhi, adequate public scrutiny will emerge, not just at the implementation stage but also at the planning stage.

In a place as rich in history and historical monuments as Delhi, the preservation and protection of such monuments will always be of prime importance, but a balance will have to be maintained between development and preservation. For example, it shouldn't be too hard for urban design and planning professionals to come up with a solution to the Barapullah situation that addresses the needs of connectivity and traffic around Nizamuddin railway station, the elevated road project, the nearby railway line, wastewater management and electricity distribution, while at the same time helping to protect and promote the Barapullah monument. All that is needed is for the actors (both governmental as well as private citizens) involved in preservation as well as development to work together in finding innovative solutions.

Easier said than done, but up to this stage of Delhi's recent history, neither preservation nor development have taken place to anything approaching a satisfactory degree. The few preservation successes that do exist in Delhi point to the fact that when there is a will to do it right, it's possible even here.

More Delhi Metro Maps

2009-12-02T23:22:00.004+05:30

I made a few more maps of Delhi Metro routes on google maps. The first is of already active routes. The stations are already marked on the actual map itself - my map then just marks out the actual routes of the lines ... or lines of the routes, whichever way you understand it!

The second map includes Phase 2 routes currently under construction. The good thing about these google maps is that I can update them as more lines become operational.

The third is my speculative map of possible Phase 3 routes. My previous post about Phase 3 plans explains the speculative origins of this map (click here to go to that post), though a recent article in the Hindustan Times also supports these speculations. Again with this map I can keep updating the routes as we get to know more about them.

I couldn't link anymore to the Hindustan Times article, but here's the map from that article.

Delhi Metro vs The World!

2009-11-10T22:50:00.003+05:30

While working on these previous Delhi Metro posts, I began to wonder how the metro compared with other systems around the world, and found a few pretty interesting resources that I thought I should share.

It turns out that a whole lot of cities (far more than I had previously thought, for example who knew Tehran had such an extensive system!) have some sort of metro system, and there are cities with systems growing much more rapidly than Delhi's (see Beijing and Shanghai), and with much more "modern" - or at least more glitzy - infrastructure (apart from those two Chinese examples also see Madrid). Not that this necessarily reflects badly on Delhi Metro - maybe it's just that their objectives are different to those of other systems.

All these expanding systems have matched or will soon match, and in some cases will soon supersede (in length and ridership) the existing "superstars" of metro systems such as the Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong, Seoul and Mexico City systems.

Apart from the pages on individual metro systems linked to above, wikipedia also has some interesting lists such as:

List of metro systems and Metro systems by annual passenger rides.

Treehugger also has some fun stuff, such as slideshows of The world's 7 greatest subways, The world's most impressive subway maps, and subway systems from around the world drawn at the same scale (including Delhi Metro!).

And I couldn't not include this great slideshow of the World's best alternative subway maps!

There are a ton of other resources available online (and offline), but these are what I came across in the past few days!

Jumping the Gun on Delhi Metro's Phase III Plans

2009-11-10T22:27:00.007+05:30

Caveats for this post:
a) The whole thing is completely speculative.
b) If you aren't familiar with Delhi and the Delhi Metro system, this won't make any sense to you at all, and will probably bore you to death.
c) It's all about maps and planned metro routes and other such geeky things.
d) The whole thing is completely speculative.

Okay, so with all those caveats, here goes!

The DPR (Detailed Project Report) for Phase III construction of Delhi Metro is in the works, and a lot of articles are being written about what Phase III is going to look like, where all its going to reach, how long its going to be (in terms of length of tracks), whether they're going to start construction before or after Phase II is complete etc etc (Phase II is scheduled to be completely operational by Sept 2010 except, I believe, for one small bit).

In terms of the areas that metro is going to reach in Phase III, most reports are basing their stories on the routes indicated on this map (not on that particular map per se, but on the routes it indicates), which in turn are probably based on this map which is by the metro people but more complicated.

The simpler map from the website above (this map shows both Phase III & IV extensions but for this post we're interested in just Phase III)

However, I've read one recent article that has a different take, which looked much more interesting to me in terms of the routes drawn out as well as the fact that the report is not based on a map generated many years ago when Phase III was purely speculative. However, the map accompanying the article has routes marked out in a very rough manner.

The "newer" though very rough map

So I thought I'd make a more accurate map of the new possible routes mentioned in the article. However, since only a few of the stations along the proposed routes are given in the article, the map I've drawn contains a whole lot of speculation on my part. This means my map below is speculation over speculation, so it might bear no resemblance whatsoever with the actual Phase III routes when they are finally made public! That said, it was a lot of fun making the map, so I'm putting it up anyway!

Note: The black lines on my map are Phase I & II lines (with stations indicated by black boxes), which are either already functional or will be functional by the end of 2010. The blue lines are new Phase III routes.

My absolutely speculative Delhi Metro Phase III layout. Click to enlarge

(Click here for a post about some google maps I made of Delhi Metro routes, including another version of the map above)

Note: The established (black) lines probably have a few errors, for instance I've shown the New Delhi Railway Station to Delhi Airport line as going through Rajiv Chowk, when in actuality there is a whole new station being built for it at Shivaji Stadium nearby.

Okay, now that I've put up that completely speculative map, let me freely analyze the completely speculative routes! Here goes. So if this plan is correct, it really shows to me that these metro guys are using their brains when coming up with their routes. Looking at the map, set aside for a minute the obvious routes needed along the inner and outer ring roads, and take the shorter routes being considered from Central Secretariat to Kashmiri Gate, and New Delhi Railway Station to Ashok Park.

I'm assuming that the Central Secretariat to Kashmiri Gate route will be a continuation of the Phase II "Violet" line from Badarpur Border to Central Secretariat. The current Yellow Line from Rajiv Chowk to Kashmiri Gate (both of which are interchange stations) is one of the most crowded spans of the metro, and this will give a second route through the area, in the process giving metro access to Delhi Gate, Daryaganj, Jami Masjid and Red Fort, and possibly also the Firoz Shah Kotla cricket ground (is the ITO junction too much to hope for?). This will also move some of the present congestion of Rajiv Chowk onto the comparatively empty Barakhamba Road station, and divert new traffic coming to Rajiv Chowk via the Yellow Line from Gurgaon to the Central Secretariat station. The Kashmiri Gate station will get more crowded though, and I'm not sure what the plan is for that!

The second line I mentioned above, between New Delhi Railway Station and Ashok Park will presumably be an extension of the Green Line, and will connect to the Serai Rohilla Railway Station (thus all four of Delhi's major railway stations will have metro links - the Nizamuddin station is also scheduled to have a metro station in Phase III), along with a station or two in the Pahar Ganj area and few on Rohtak Road.

When it comes to the ring road routes, the metro people haven't decided to just complete one ring first and then start the next, but are taking on bits of both rings simultaneously, so as to get them running where they are needed most, and making it easier to get future extension plans on these rings approved (hehe!). So south Delhi, which will have just two metro lines passing through it by 2010, will get connected by both ring road routes by 2015, and all four lines running through west Delhi will gain a connection between them.

Pretty clever! Too bad it's all completely speculative. Now to wait and see what metro is really planning to do for Phase III!

On and Around the Delhi Metro

2009-11-09T21:40:00.026+05:30

This blog was originally supposed to be titled A Day on the Delhi Metro, but since it took me two days to travel the entire length of the metro system (because I got off at a lot of stations and explored the areas around), and since the photographs here include two more subsequent visits to the metro and it's surroundings, I couldn't use that title. :)

In any case, my aim was not just to travel the entire system (though that would have been a fun little project on it's own), but also to explore how the metro interacted with the city, what parts of the city it reached, and to try and ascertain whether and how the metro is changing and shaping the city. Till this trip I had never been to most of the places in north, west and east Delhi that metro traveled to (my earlier forays into those parts of the city were mostly restricted to areas around the Inner Ring Road). Come to think of it, metro hasn't been extended yet into south Delhi, which means that my experience of the metro system till this trip had been limited to a few stations in central Delhi!

Delhi Metro is still a nascent system in many ways. It began operating in 2002, and most of the routes that have been opened till now (3 lines in total) are from Phase I of it's construction, which was completed in 2005, covering some 65km (the first line began functioning in 2002 before Phase I was completed). Phase II is scheduled for completion by 2010, though some of the line extensions from Phase II are already in operation. In fact, in just a few days (sometime in mid-November 2009) the first major line extension of Phase II (connecting Yamuna Bank with Noida) will open, with other major line extensions and three entirely new lines opening between then and September 2010, all in time for the October 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Phase II will add about 120km to the existing system. Subsequently, Phase III will begin construction and is scheduled for completion by 2015, adding another 100km or so.

Note: I had to obtain permission from metro's (DMRC) head office to take photographs inside the two stations that are shown here. Usually photography in the stations and on the lines of metro is not permitted. The other photographs I've taken for this post are from outside the metro system. It would have been really nice to take photos of the city from the elevated metro tracks, but since this is not permitted I didn't take any.

Another note: Instead of endlessly repeating "the metro" in this post, I've often just written "metro" as a noun to denote Delhi's Metro.

I've realized that riding on the elevated sections of metro is a great way to get a feel of the city. One is usually traveling at roof height, so wide vistas of the urban landscape around are visible. The relative low density of construction in Delhi has made it possible to construct a largely elevated metro system, as opposed to the kind of underground system found in other cities. Some people complain about this, saying that the elevated tracks spoil the "look" of the neighborhoods they goes through and the city as a whole, but I say what looks are you talking about but I think that the city and its people will adapt to this. Just as roads are not considered eyesores anymore, neither will the elevated metro system.

So with all that, here is my gallivanting-through-the-entire-metro-system story. I've actually collapsed my two days (and two additional short forays) into one narrative, therefore the description is not chronological as per the order that I visited the particular stations/areas. Instead the narrative is now sequenced geographically, i.e. by which station comes first on a particular route etc. Hopefully this won't take away from the story.

Click on images to enlarge.

Start at Pragati Maidan

I began at the Pragati Maidan station, which is my "home base" for now. From next year onwards the under-construction Jangpura station on Phase II's "Violet" Line will become much nearer. Pragati Maidan is Delhi's main exhibitions ground, which is partly what this station serves.

Pragati Maidan station

Rajiv Chowk

I got permission from Delhi Metro headquarters to photograph the Rajiv Chowk and Karol Bagh stations. I visited the stations on a Sunday morning, which is the reason for the lack of crowds at Rajiv Chowk.

A bit of overheard-on-metro trivia: Since Connaught Place was officially renamed Rajiv Chowk (sometime in the 1990s), successive (Congress) governments have been futilely striving for the name change to take hold in public imagination. A few weeks ago on the metro I overheard a conversation about how metro has succeeded in popularizing the new name, since the Rajiv Chowk station has been called as such since its inception, so more and more Delhiites are getting accustomed to the name.

Rajiv Chowk station

Waiting for the Blue Line early on Sunday morning

The next three images depict the break-down of passenger queues waiting to get onto trains. The queue is quite intact while passengers wait for a train, and even as the train comes into the station. But once the train stops, the queue soon disintegrates into a much more familiar blob crowding the action (in this case the sliding doors). And this is during completely off-hours when there is no question of trains being too overcrowded to get in. Vying for a place to sit is what this crowding is for!

Queue intact while waiting for train

Queue holds as train zooms in

Queue, what queue?

Stairs connecting Blue Line platforms (above) to Yellow Line platforms (below), and the walkway over the Blue Line tracks

Waiting for the Yellow Line

Streamlined art deco-ish assistance booth

Train coming into a Yellow Line platform

Metro entrance at Connaught Place (sorry, above ground it's still Connaught Place, not Rajiv Chowk!)

Karol Bagh

A few stations away from Rajiv Chowk on the Blue Line is the elevated Karol Bagh station. This section of metro has some fascinating mid-20th c. houses lining the street that the tracks are elevated over (i.e. Pusa Road). Elevated stations in different parts of the metro system have different looks and feels, and I wish I could have taken photos on a few more stations to get a comparison. But you can get a basic idea with these Karol Bagh images.

Karol Bagh station

Houses near the metro line

Station architecture and engineering

These stations are designed to allow a 6-lane road to pass underneath

Rajouri Garden

Rajouri Garden station is higher than usual to allow for the metro tracks to span over the nearby Inner Ring Road flyover.

Rajouri Garden station

Metro track spanning over Ring Road flyover

The trend is to take the metro close to existing commercial areas, and create new commercial areas near existing metro stations. Metro authorities are encouraging this via commercial real-estate development on and around metro property. It is quite likely that stretches of the city along the metro tracks will become more and more commercial with time, and residential areas will recede a little away from the tracks.

Shopping mall near Rajouri Garden station

Tilak Nagar

This is an example of the metro cutting through a crowded part of the city. Note the older elevated road running parallel to the metro line (visible in the second image).

Tilak Nagar station

Janakpuri

I had never really been to Janakpuri before, and got to see the Janakpuri Business Center for the first time, which the metro line now runs next to.

Metro track running next to Janakpuri CBD

New commercial construction near Janakpuri West station

Janakpuri District Center - offices and retail

Dwarka

Dwarka is a relatively new development at the edge of present day Delhi, but metro gets to it already. The newness of Dwarka is indicated by the vast empty spaces around the stations. Again, I assume these spaces have been earmarked for future commercial development, while apartment complexes (visible in the background in the first photo) are located at a distance away from stations.

Dwarka Sector 9 station

The other side of Sector 9 station

Apartments close to metro tracks

Commercial development underway close to stations

We've heard of NIMBY, but PIMBY (Please In My BackYard), really? (The sign reads "Metro View Apartments")

Chawdi Bazaar

Dwarka is at the western end of the Blue Line, so I got back to Rajiv Chowk and took the Yellow Line north towards Jahangirpuri. The Yellow Line famously goes below Old Delhi, and has made taking one's car into always-crowded Old Delhi unfashionable. The underground station at Chawdi Bazaar (Hauz Qazi Chowk) probably has the most glaring new-world/old-world difference between the metro system and the outside world that it services.

Entrance to Chawdi Bazaar station

Hauz Qazi Chowk above the Chawdi Bazaar station. The station's skylight is at the center of the chowk

Kashmiri Gate

The Kashmiri Gate station, like Rajiv Chowk, is an interchange station, and the route between these two stations sees some of the highest ridership in the metro system. The small stretch between the two stations, which is barely a few kilometers long, also happens to be the stretch that services Old Delhi, the Old Delhi railway station, as well as New Delhi railway station. On top of all this Kashmiri Gate is also the location of Delhi's main inter-state bus terminal. Needless to say, this stretch is way overcrowded most of the day.

Speaking of overcrowding, metro currently runs all its trains at 4 cars long, while it looks like all the stations in the system are designed to accommodate trains that are 8 cars long. With the opening of many Phase 2 lines in the coming months, there is news that some trains will become 6 cars long. I'm not sure what the reasoning is for keeping the trains short for now (probably economics), but the need to make them bigger is already very apparent!

Kashmiri Gate station

One of the many Kashmiri Gate station entrances

Vidhan Sabha (Old Secretariat)

North along the Yellow Line from Kashmiri Gate is the Old Secretariat, which now houses the offices of Delhi's administration (Vidhan Sabha), so it gets a station of its own. I doubt that very many administrators use metro to get to their place of work!

Vidhan Sabha station entrance, with the two white towers of the secretariat visible behind

Vishwavidyalay

The station for Delhi University's main North Campus. In the first of these two images, note the (few) auto-rickshas and many cycle-rickshas waiting near both station exits. The number of cycle-rickshas is particularly high on the right side of the image, waiting for rides to the nearby colleges. Many of the colleges are just beyond walking-range, which is the perfect distance for cycle-rickshas.

I think this might be indicative of a metro/cycle-ricksha nexus that could emerge with the metro system's expansion throughout Delhi. As metro stations pop up all over the place, they will be near to but just beyond walking-distance from many locations. The cheap, maneuverable and eco-friendly cycle-rickshas can in effect double and triple the "human powered" access range from metro stations. Maybe metro should invest in a feeder cycle-ricksha service instead of feeder buses!

Vishwavidyalay station

Adarsh Nagar

The Adarsh Nagar station is another one where the differences between the station/system and the outside world are stark. Right outside this station is a squatter settlement that contrasts startlingly with the modern, orderly and clean metro system. I think I'm going to write another post elaborating this difference and the issue of access.

Adarsh Nagar station and its environs

Shastri Nagar

After reaching Jahangirpuri on the Yellow Line, I returned to Kashmiri Gate station and took the Red Line westwards towards Rithala. Shastri Nagar station on this line is to me a perfect example of the middle-class and working-class landscapes that much of the metro goes through. Currently with residential colonies on both sides (which have more traditional commercial areas within and nearby), these stations may not get the kind of concentrated commercial development around them that we see in other places, but rather could have more "strip" commercial development along the tracks.

Mural on Shastri Nagar station

Shastri Nagar station and its environs

The Red Line track snaking its way through north-west Delhi

Inderlok

Inderlok is a future interchange station. The existing Red Line platform is to the left, on top of Parsavnath Metro Mall on the ground floor. The new Green Line trains coming from and going towards Mundka will terminate on the platform to the right, now nearing completion.

The Red and Green lines that meet at Inderlok are on different gauges, on account of what sounds to me like very political decisions made in the past regarding metro's gauge. The whole issue of different gauges on the same system seems very messy to me, and hopefully this won't lead to too many complications in the future.

Inderlok station

The Inderlok station premises has yet another mall on it (below), the design of which is indicative of the kind of ... ahem ... "modern" aesthetic that metro seems to wants to project - with lots of glass and aluminum facing. On a separate note, the mall does not appear to be very busy right now.

Mall at Inderlok station

Subhash Place

The district center at Netaji Subhash Place was another that I had never visited, and I spent some time there exploring the area.

Metro station and track with Netaji Subhash Place in the background

Looking towards the metro station

The nearby Pitampura TV tower. Don't miss the "Toe Away Zone" sign!

Netaji Subhash Place

Panorama of Netaji Subhash Place, covering an approximate 225 degree view from within the area

An open court between buildings, with the metro line visible in the background. Does the fork and spoon sculpture in the middle indicate a "food" court? :)

Seelampur

Seelampur is also on the Red Line, but to the east of Kashmiri Gate in north-east Delhi, across Yamuna river.

Seelampur station

End at Welcome

Welcome is the name of an area in east Delhi just ahead of Seelampur, in the overall Shahdara area. A good place to end the blog!

Welcome station

Jodhpur RIFF (and Jodhpur Straight Up)!

2009-11-07T18:50:00.009+05:30

Early in October I traveled to Jodhpur (in Rajasthan state) for a couple of days to take in the RIFF - the Rajasthan International Folk Festival, a yearly five-day long music festival that brings together Rajasthan's storied folk musicians with musicians from around India and the world. This is an excellent take on the usual folk musician fare, which is usually pretty great as it is, but when "fused" with musicians from other places creates some pretty interesting collaborations and synergies. The day (or rather night) I was at the festival a group called Dharohar, which is comprised of Rajasthani folk musicians and a couple of musicians from the UK (this year a beat boxer and a guitarist), played an awesome set!

RIFF performances take place in Jodhpur's Mehrangarh fort, an imposing setting both during the night as well as day, so I spent a day exploring the fort. All the images are below.

In the interest of full disclosure: My sister tangentially works with the organizers of the festival, which is how I came to know about it, and I was basically accompanying her to take in some of the events!

Jodhpur RIFF

Dharohar performing in a palace courtyard of Mehrangarh Fort

Mehrangarh Fort

The fort, which has its origins in the 15th c., sits on top of a hill - which is more like a rocky outcrop. Many of the fort/palace structures would have been built in later centuries.

Mehrangarh fort with Jodhpur city spread out below

The fort's high ramparts

Jai pol, the first of many gates on the way up to the fort

The winding path up to the fort

Views of Jodhpur

Path leading down to Fateh Pol

Courtyard and rooms on the way from/to Fateh Pol

The final gateway before the palace buildings

Palace buildings and courtyards

Musicians and dancers (through the two arched doorways) in the palace courtyards

Colored glass panel in a palace room

Palace rooms

... and in the middle of all the typical Rajasthani palatial architecture, an art deco staircase!

More hints of art deco in the palace buildings

Chamunda Devi temple

Jodhpur City

Views of the city, from the palace and the road up to the palace. The first three images are panoramas that you can click on to enlarge. Click here to go to the flickr set that has the panoramas, and clicking on any of the other images will also take you to the same flickr set.

Jodhpur at night. I took these photos on the night I was at the festival. The last one is a bit shaky but I like it anyway!

Dilli Darshan: Shahjahanabad I: Khari Baoli & Katra Neel

2009-11-07T10:44:00.005+05:30

A Brief History of Shahjahanabad

Carrying on with my Dilli Darshan posts, I'm going to put up a series of them about Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi). Shahjahanabad is the 17th century Mughal walled city that also contained the Mughal palace and court, and which was the occupied part of Delhi during the time the British took increasing control of the city throughout the first half of the 19th century. Which means that Shahjahanabad was what they took increasing control of, and was the core area that Delhi grew out of in the late 19th c. and throughout the 20th c.

The 19th c. also saw the consequent dimming of the Mughal empire (which had been in decline throughout the 18th c. as well), and it's eventual snuffing out after the unsuccessful 1857 rebellion against British rule. Shahjahanabad was the main site for all this. After 1857 the British took complete control of Shahjahanabad, converted the walled palace area into their garrison in the city, and destroyed many structures within both the palace and city areas. They initially resided within the walled city, but later moved out to the Civil Lines area just north of Shahjahanabad, and the cantonment was subsequently moved to the area that is now Delhi University's North Campus. Of course once the decision came through in 1912 to move the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi, the focus slowly drifted to the site south of Shahjahanabad that came to be known as New Delhi.

The present urban fabric of the walled city can be traced back to the late 19th c. and early 20th c., when the British directly and indirectly reorganized the city. The sprawling havelis of Mughal nobles and royalty were replaced by smaller havelis, houses and shops. After independence and partition in 1947, these structures were further subdivided and altered by refugees moving into the empty houses and shops left behind by fleeing Muslim residents of Shahjahanabad. The Shahjahanabad we see today is a result of these series of subdivisions, combined with the particular nature and scale of commerce that has taken place here over the past few decades.

Some of this commerce has it's roots in the distant past, with certain shops, streets and localities tracing their trade back to Mughal times. Other areas have more recent commercial histories, though in the lore of contemporary Delhi, these trading areas are no less potent in their mythos than the older ones.

The fact that Old Delhi (I'm going to use Old Delhi and Shahjahanabad interchangeably throughout these series of posts, so non-Dilliwalas please bear with me) has become/remained a center of commerce since the 1940s is itself an interesting phenomenon. My take is that since it was always centrally located in expanding Delhi (whether expanding in the 50s or 80s); was not affected by zoning and development laws in the same way as the rest of Delhi was (similar in this sense to many of Delhi's urban villages); and was a preexisting built up area (so there was no need to build from scratch), it became a magnate for small-scale industries and wholesale commerce in ways that other areas of Delhi were not allowed to become, or had to be planned and constructed to become. This led to the present matrix of commerce that takes place in Old Delhi till today.

I feel that this grip on Delhi's commercial psyche is slowly being loosened (and probably has been since the early 90s when India's economy opened up), but to what extent this is true is to be seen, and in any case Old Delhi still holds a special place for people looking to purchase particular kinds of goods.

The focus of these Shahjahanabad photos is to capture the old city with its architecture (such as they exists today) as well as contemporary life in the city, since both occur simultaneously in this space, and cannot be extricated from one another, especially when the canvas of the photographs is the broad urban landscape.

Khari Baoli & Katra Neel areas (& Lahori Gate & Fatehpuri Chowk)

As I've said before, my whole Dilli Darshan project is based on and heavily influenced by Luck Peck's Delhi: A Thousand Years of Building, and these Shahjahanabad posts are no different - I've organized my exploration of the walled city in much the same way that Peck organized her descriptions. So I begin with the north western corner of Shahjahanabad - in the Khari Baoli and Lahori Gate areas.

An idea of the extent of Shahjahanabad - which is the densely built-up semi-circular area that covers most of the image. The general area covered by the photographs in this post are marked

The general sequence of photos is indicated by the numbering below. Click on the image to enlarge

Fatehpuri Chowk

Beginning with Fatehpuri Chowk, which lies at the far end of Chandni Chowk road - the most famous stretch of Shahjahanabad (arguably apart from the area around Jami Masjid). I had never been to Fatehpuri Chowk before these visits, and it really gives a sense of what the city would have looked like in decades past.

As far as I can tell, Fatehpuri Chowk is actually the single name given to two chowks (road intersections) that are very close together. Chandni Chowk road and Khari Baoli road are offset by a few dozen feet, and the two intersections caused by this offset are both covered by the name Fatehpuri Chowk. Fatehpuri Masjid, which lies at the end of Chandni Chowk road, is responsible for this offset, since the road needs to skirt this mosque (which also gives the chowk its name). In any case, this offsetting has now led to Chandni Chowk and Khari Baoli being very different entities, as we shall see below and in subsequent blogs.

Fatehpuri Chowk where Kahri Baoli road begins (or ends), which is definitely the more interesting of the two intersections visually

Fatehpuri Chowk where Khari Baoli road begins, looking towards Fatehpuri Mosque (which is directly behind the set of shops visible at the center of the image). One minaret of the mosque is sticking out to the right

Fatehpuri Chowk - the area between the two intersections

Fatehpuri Chowk where Chandni Chowk road ends

Looking towards Katra Bariyan

Staircase leading up to Coronation Building at Fatehpuri Chowk

Coronation building courtyard and surrounding houses. The center of the courtyard is now occupied by makeshift shops, leaving a narrow passageway at the edge of the courtyard for circulation

Khari Baoli Road

Khari Baoli road, beginning from Fatehpuri Chowk, is a wholesale spice market, and the activity of porters, sellers and shoppers is quite fascinating, as is the pungent odor of the area!

Porters awaiting work on Khari Baoli road

Khari Baoli road

Houses on Khari Baoli road

A house near Lahori Gate

A dilapidated old structure near Lahori Gate, of which no gate remains today. Lahori Gate was one of the many entry points into Shahjahanabad, only a few of which are still in existence in any state. However, Lahori Gate remains the name of the area

Naya Bazaar Road

Naya Bazaar road passes in front of Lahori Gate, and in this area accommodates a wholesale grain market.

Early morning bullock-cart gridlock on Naya Bazaar road

Porter work coming to an end while it's still early in the morning

Cattle rewards

Buildings on Naya Bazaar Road

A remnant of British colonial neoclassicism at the end of Naya Bazaar road

Many buildings on the wider Shahjahanabad streets would have looked like this - a balcony on the first-floor creating a covered arcade on the ground-floor where the shops are. Today, buildings like these on heavier trafficked streets are much altered

Spice sellers at the end of Naya Bazaar road

SP Mukherji Marg

This road (marg means road) is where the Old Delhi railway station is located, which was the main railway station for Delhi before the New Delhi station was built, though Old Delhi station is still heavily used. The part of the road the I cover here is some distance from the station, though many old hotels are located on this stretch and, I believe, still operational.

Haveli entrances at the end of SP Mukherji marg

Hotels near Old Delhi railway station. They look like they have art deco pasts from the 1920s & 30s, though they've been heavily modified since then

More hotels facing SP Mukherji marg, these ones in at the edge of the Katra Neel area

Church Mission Marg

This roads leads from SP Mukherji Marg back to Fatehpuri Chowk.

A hotel on Church Mission road

Entrance to a commercial space in the Khari Baoli area hidden behind the high facade of a Church Mission road-facing building

St Stephen's Church, which gives Church Mission road its name

On Church Mission road, closer to Fatehpuri Chowk

Khari Baoli Area

Moving from main roads into the narrow alleys within Khari Baoli neighborhood. The various neighborhoods of Shahjahanabad are really interesting to explore, bringing out different aspects of the city and the changes that have happened to it in past decades.

Khari Baoli area

An old gateway, either to a haveli or a particular neighborhood area

The entrance to an old haveli, now much altered

Doorway inside the haveli area

The haveli has been divided into multiple housing units, interspersed with narrow alleyways

Another haveli in another part of Khari Baoli

Katra Neel area

Katra Neel is on Chandni Chowk road, adjacent to the Khari Baoli area.

Katra Neel alley in a downpour

An old wooden balcony

Old doorway peeping out from behind more recent construction

Katral Neel is full of Shivalays (shrines to Shiva) such as like this one, in the courtyards of former havelis. These originate from the 19th c.

A busy alleyway in Katra Neel

An art deco facade. Such early 20th c. "high-architecture" facades keep popping up in Shahjahanabad. This one reminds me of baroque architecture in Rome!

Haveli facade on the edge of Katra Neel, where it faces SP Mukherji marg.

Haveli minaret

Detail

An adjoining haveli, with neo-gothic influences

Inside the neo-gothic haveli is an industrial-haveli landscape

Mandu

2009-11-05T15:21:00.008+05:30

Mandu is one of those places that I'd been planning to visit for many many years, and till now for one reason or another hadn't managed to get to. So on my way back from Bangalore in August, I thought I'd make a detour and finally get to see the site. Despite a lack of reasonably-clean budget hotels, I wasn't disappointed. :)

Mandu is my favorite kind of place to visit, not just because it's an important architectural history site in India (which it is), and not just because it's as interesting as other Deccan "sultanate" sites such as Bidar, Golconda, Bijapur, Ahmednagar and Daulatabad* that I studied as an undergrad, but also because it is located at the edge of a large geographical feature (the Malwa plateau, which covers many hundred square kilometers in central India). Such locations, on such edges, provide a context for us to comprehend these large geographical entities, which otherwise we can live on or near and never fully grasp.

*Come to think of it, Daulatabad was always in the hands of the Delhi Sultanate until it went to the Mughals, and was never a seat of its own sultanate, so in that respect was different to the other sites mentioned above.

Of course the fact that Mandu fort is located on the edge of such a plateau is not a coincidence - the cliffs and steep hills here provide excellent natural protection from invading armies. What is unique about Mandu's location is that here, the plateau juts out into a wide spur that is connected to the main Malwa plateau by a very narrow neck. Mandu is located on this spur, and strong fortifications and a sort of moat on the narrow neck separate the main plateau from Mandu's plateau.

The Google "terrain" maps below show what I'm talking about. Click on the maps to enlarge them.

Map showing the "Mandu plateau" attached to the Malwa Plateau to the north and surrounded by the plains of the Narmada to the south

A close-up of "Mandu plateau"

Terrain map and satellite image side-by-side. The green patches are cultivated areas. We can see the number of water bodies on the plateau (the largest one s Sagar Talao). The main village of Mandu is marked on the satellite image

So the Mandu plateau (if I can call it that) is a small spur (about 20 square kilometers) of the large Malwa plateau, and is attached to the Malwa plateau by a very narrow neck which, as I mentioned above, has been moat-ed and fortified to separate it from the main plateau - a perfect natural protection augmented by man-made fortifications, a guide would say.

The panoramic photos below give an idea of the "Mandu plateau", the Malwa plateau on the other side of the neck, and the plains of the Narmada a few hundred feet below. The hills jutting up from the plateau, including the conical Songarh hill on the Mandu plateau, belong to the Vindhya range.

Clicking on the panoramas will enlarge them. Click here for the flickr set with all these panoramas.

Looking from the Malwa plateau towards Mandu plateau, with the plains visible on the sides of and behind Mandu plateau

Looking from Mandu plateau (on top of the northern fortifications) towards the main Malwa plateau, with the ravines that seperate them visible to the right. The "neck" is on the left in this view

Looking towards the plains at the edge of Mandu plateau near Neelkanth's palace

Looking towards the plains at the edge of Mandu plateau near Lohani caves

Looking towards the plains at the edge of Mandu plateau at Lohani caves

A stone dam built at Lohani caves, with views of the plateau's slopes

View across Mandu plateau from Lal Bangla (or Lal Bungalow). Note the agricultural land (which belongs to villagers), the open scrub land (which either belongs to the government or the "maharaja" of this area), and the fenced-in land around the monument. Cultivated fields, small hamlets and monuments are interestingly juxtaposed throughout Mandu

Mandu's northern gates, fortifications and approach

The narrow "neck" joining Mandu plateau with the Malwa plateau to its north is also the main approach to Mandu, and is one the most heavily fortified areas of the fort.

Mandu's northern ramparts

Tombs on the approach to Mandu. These tombs are on the edge of the Malwa plateau

Looking at Malwa plateau from the Mandu ramparts

The various gates on the neck connecting the two plateaus

Causeway over the "moat"

(What I'm calling) The moat of Mandu, now an irrigated strip since (I'm assuming) it is completely silted up

Alamgir Gate - the first gate on the approach to Mandu

A far view of the old approach to Mandu - a steep incline up to Dilli Gate

The old approach leading up to Dilli Gate on the right, and the new road to the left

On the way up to Dilli Gate

Looking from Dilli Gate across the Malwa plateau and hills of the Vindhya range

Dilli Gate

A small mosque adjacent to Dilli Gate (inside the fort)

Like my two favorite structures in Mandu, both of which happen to be mosques (and which I talk about later in this post), this one also reuses pillars from Hindu temples

Looking along the northern ramparts

Jali Mahal - a tomb that lies on the northern approach to Mandu, on the Malwa plateau side

Mandu's architecture

Before I get to the monuments themselves, here is a schematic map I drew of the location of Mandu's historic structures. I haven't come across an adequately accurate map of Mandu that locates its main architectural sites (I always hesitate to use the word archaeological for such structures/sites) in some detail, so I took a (schematic) stab at it. My map is based on the one inside ASI's Mandu booklet, which is good, but has some errors.

This map probably won't be any good just on its own, but rather is an additional site locator to go along with a more geographically accurate map of Mandu. Also, I've left out some of the more remote roads and monuments that I did not visit.

Map of Mandu's architectural sites. Click on the map to enlarge, and feel free to print and use! The map is also on my flickr page

The existing structures around Mandu were mainly built from the early 15th c. to mid 16th c., when Mandu was the capital of the Malwa sultans. Evidence of Hindu structures existing before this time exists in the form of temple pillars used in early mosques, as well as the Lohani caves, and the fort was in the hands of Hindu rulers before the 14th c.

My two favorite structures in Mandu are two of the smaller (compared to the Jami Masjid) and earlier mosques from this period. Both seem to have been built from the remains of Hindu temples, and I don't prefer them because of any syncretic affection, but rather because I think these are the two most "atmospheric" structures in Mandu. Many of the other buildings were too large and too plain to keep my interest.

Dilawar Khan's mosque, built in the early 15th c. and located among the "Royal Enclave" group of monuments, is tucked away and almost hidden at the northern edge of the group. It is accessed by a small opening in a plain high wall, and the open expanse of the mosque's courtyard, flanked all around by sculpted stone columns, makes a pleasing contrast to the cave-like entrance. The array of columns in the main hall in front of the qibla wall is almost forest-like.

The small entrance to Dilawar Khan's mosque

The mosque courtyard with plateaus and hills in the background

Entrance doorway and side arcade

The main hall of the mosque

The other mosque is Malik Mughith's mosque built in the mid 15th c., and has similar sculpted columns taken ostensibly from Hindu temples. It is bigger than Dilawar Khan's mosque, and the main hall is topped by three well-proportioned and somewhat unusual domes, each being of equal size. Unlike Dilawar Khan's mosque, this mosque had a grand entrance topped by a (now missing) dome. One intriguing feature of this mosque is the way it's domes are supported - by an octagonal system of columns and arches, which it shares with many Hindu and Jain temples in central India. The hypostyle hall of this mosque is even more beautiful and forest-like than Dilawar Khan's, and the columns of this mosque are more delicate and intricately carved.

Malik Mughith's mosque exterior

Mosque entrance gateway. You can see the octagonal arrangement of supporting columns and arches here, and part of the narrow drum that once lay at the base of the dome

Mosque courtyard. The three equally sized domes are exquisitely proportioned and shaped!

Side arcade

One of the side domes of the main hall, with the same octagonal column support arrangement

The main hall

The central dome is visible in the middle-ground

View towards the corner arrangement

The other corner

Another interesting duo of buildings are the two "audience halls" in Mandu - the Hindola Mahal and what is known as Gada Shah's "Shop". The "shop" is sometimes referred to as a granary or warehose, but I don't see how this is possible because it is so close in design to the Hindola Mahal as to be obviously another audience hall.

The interior of both structures are reminiscent of the naves of Romanesque cathedrals, with high arched ceilings that are supported by enormously buttressed walls. The roof and many arches of Gada Shah's Shop are now collapsed despite it's thick walls and buttresses, though Hindola Mahal is still standing (or was extensively repaired at some point of time).

Both these buildings remind me of a similar structure in Bidar Fort in Karnataka, which had a similar arrangement. Bidar remains my favorite Deccan fort visit.

Hindola Mahal, from the late 15th c.

The later northern extension to Hindola Mahal

Hindola Mahal interiors

Ramp leading up to northern extension's upper floor

Gada Shah's Shop, from the early 16th c.

One of the "double" arches is still standing

Some facade detailing seems to still be in place

Now for some of Mandu's other buildings, according to their groupings:

Royal Enclave

Apart from Dilawar Khan's mosque and Hindola Mahal, this group, which is where the main palaces were located, also includes Mandu's most famous and iconic structure - the Jahaz Mahal, or "ship palace".

Jahaz Mahal, flanked on both sides by water bodies - the Kapur Talao and Munja Talao

Pavilions on the upper floor

Water channel

View of the Munja Talao from a lower floor window

The pool in Jahaz Mahal, now filled with dirty water and an eyesore of a fountain at its center

Jahaz Mahal from Munja Talao

Jahaz Mahal from Jal Mahal

View of Munja Talao, with Jal Mahal within the lake, and main palace buildings on the banks

Jal Mahal

View across the Royal Enclave and Kapur Talao

Main palace buildings

Hammam (baths) domes

Hammam dome from inside

Champa baoli - a well within the main palace, which also helped cool a basement layer of the palace

Part of the facing material of the palace still intact/restored

Hypostyle hall in a side palace

Marble brackets

Probably an ablution pool?

Base of a marble faced column still intact

Painted plaster still intact

Gada Shah's House, with the remains of an octagonal pavilion in the garden

The house resembles the entrance facade of a Romanesque church!

Water spouts

Village Group

This group consists of the main Jami Masjid, Hoshang Shah's tomb and the combined Ashrafi Mahal madrasa/Mahmud Jhalji's tomb. These structures are located within the main village of Mandu, hence the group's name. Hoshang Shah's tomb was a bonus for me on this trip - for the past few years I had wrongly assumed that this tomb was in Hoshangabad, which is near Bhopal, so was pleasantly surprised when I realized that it was here in Mandu. Hoshang Shah's tomb is important in South Asia's architectural history as it was one of the prototypes for the Taj Mahal.

View across Mandu village. I should have taken a few more photographs of the village and present-day Mandu!

Jami Masjid from Ashrafi Mahal

Jami Masjid

Jami Masjid entrance

Courtyard

Main hall facade

Main hall

Central dome

Mihrab and minbar

Mosque external wall

Side entrance gateway to the mosque. This entrance leads to the entrance of Hoshang Shah's tomb

Entrance to Hoshang Shah's tomb

Hoshang Shah's tomb

Entrance gateway to Mahmud Khalji's tomb

Repair work inside the gateway

Remains of Mahmud Khalji's tomb, with the gaeway and Jami Masjid in background

A side turret of Ashrafi Mahal madrasa, which now forms the base of Mahmud Khalji's tomb

Ashrafi Mahal

Darya Khan's Tomb Group

A small cluster of buildings comprising of a tomb, a mosque, a palace and a "baradari". The nearby Hathi Mahal (so called because of it's large elephant leg-like columns), a tomb subsequently surrounded very closely and injudiciously by a set of rooms, is also included in this group.

Approach to Darya Khan's tomb group, with the tomb in the background and mosque to the left

Tomb and enclosing walls

Darya Khan's tomb

Tomb details

Tomb interior

Looking out from the tomb enclosure to a nearby palace structure

Mosque

Hathi Mahal

My trusted rental bike "dhanno", that I used to get around Mandu

Sagar Talao Group

This group includes Malik Mughith's mosque, as well as a large though plain serai, and a set of tombs.

Dai ka Mahal is a tomb with an attached mosque and rooms

Dai ka Mahal

The stone used for many of Mandu's monuments has this particular color and flaky weathering pattern, which makes for an interesting texture close up. Where the stone is darkened is due to rain

Tilework detail on tomb

Mosque

Looking out into the nearby ravine from Dai ka Mahal

A dam at the top of the ravine near Dai ka Mahal

Dai ki Choti Behen ka Mahal! Near it's bigger sister, possibly had a mosque attached to it as well - the arrangement looks pretty similar

Tilework detail on dome

Rewa Kund Group

This group, at the southern edge of the Mandu plateau, contains the other well known and iconic building of Mandu - Roopmati's Pavilion, as well as the Rewa Kund tank and Baz Bahadur's palace. I visited these structures late in the evening of my last day in Mandu.

Rewa Kund

Baz Bahadur's palace from it's approach road

Baz Bhadur's palace courtyard and rooftop pavilions

Pavilion in Baz Bahadur's palace

View from pavilion

Baz Bahadur's palace

Roopmati's pavilion

Looking like a Ladhaki/Tibetan monastery

Looking out onto the Mandu plateau

Looking out onto the Narmada plains. According to legend, on clear days Roopmati would look out onto the shimmering sliver of water that was the far-off Narmada. Obviously not on days like the one I visited on!

The plains visible below the clouds

Other Structures around Mandu

Assorted structures from all around the Mandu plateau:

Ujala baoli, with Gada Shah's Shop in the background

Neelkanth palace

Lohani caves

Dam near Lohani caves

Pillars from Hindu temples erected near Lohani caves

Octagonal tomb on the way to Lal Bangla/Bungalow

Lake in front of Lal Bangla

Lal Bangla entrance

Lal Bangla

Tomb on the way to Rewa Kund group

Tomb among cultivated fields on the way to Rewa Kund group

Tungnath idol procession video finally up!

2009-10-27T14:30:00.002+05:30

When I wrote the post about my trip to the Himalayas earlier this year, I didn't put up the video I took of a procession taking the Tungnath temple idol up from it's winter "seat" to the temple itself, which was "opening" for the spring while I was there. I've finally put up the video, though it's really grainy. Click here or on the image below to view the video, or go to the original post about my Tungnath trip. Keep the volume on your speakers up to hear the women's wonderful singing!

Temples in Technicolo(u)r

2009-10-27T07:15:00.002+05:30

A while back at one of Delhi's vanguard ethnic-chic stores, I found a novelty postcard on sale (very tongue-in-cheekily), with an image of a gaudily decorated goupram from the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple at Trichy in south India. I bought the postcard thinking the goupram must be uniquely kitschy in it's sculpture and color palette, and was planning to post a scan of it on my blog as stand-alone kitsch. Here's the postcard image:

Original postcard scan

However, on my trip to Bangalore and Mandu, I realized that this style of decoration is probably a trend in south India, with many modern Bangalore temples decorated in a similar manner.

Bangalore temple gopuram

Bangalore temple gopuram under renovation, probably to apply a special extra coat of kitsch

Gopuram detail

Side entrance to temple

And it's not just in south India. In the heart of central India, where the temples are not in the "Dravidian" style but rather the often more plain "Indo-Aryan" style (this terminology really need to be updated by someone researching Hindu temples), such temples also use a similar color palette. I saw a perfect example of this on the bus ride from Indore to Mandu in Madhya Pradesh but didn't photograph it, though the entrance of a Jain temple at Mandu gives an indication of what I mean - the same colors used in a different way to decorate the temple.

Mandu Jain temple entrance gate

All I can say after looking at these examples is - thank the multicoloured gods that plaster doesn't last as long as stone!

Bangalore & Somnathpur

2009-10-27T07:08:00.002+05:30

Back in August I visited a friend in Bangalore, and while I did not have much time to explore the city, I took some on-the-fly photos of the places we drove by, through his car window. I wanted to get a sense of "contemporary" and "changing" Bangalore, i.e. the high-tech city that is supposed to be India's answer to silicon valley.

Much like the actual silicon valley, Bangalore seems not to have any single centralized space where all the high-tech stuff takes place, and instead has office buildings spread across the city. Much of central Bangalore is unchanged from decades past, with individual structures coming up here and there, and retains the air of a small-to-mid sized Indian city (as much as such cities can be lumped together). Many parts of central Bangalore actually reminded me of Bombay in a small city package. Like Bombay, much of Bangalore was laid out by the British, and many structures from the early-to-mid-20th century remain. In between these, new commercial and retail buildings are cropping up like so many high-tech coconut trees. If I had more time I'd have loved to explore this early-to-mid-20th c. Bangalore with it's modernist/art deco architecture.

I only ventured out once into the suburbs of Bangalore, on my way to Somnathpur (and saw a bit more during my train journey into the city), where I spotted some of the new high-rise apartments that the techie youth who populate the tech industry would reside in. I assume that much of Bangalore's growth is taking place in these suburbs, which seems to be expanding in the manner of other booming small cities in India, i.e. with low to medium density. Some out-of-ordinary projects (larger projects, tall apartment structures etc) signify the uniqueness of Bangalore in the Indian urban scene. Perhaps I didn't venture into areas where some of the more "exclusive" projects are being constructed.

Bangalore through a car window

A "sail" building for Bangalore, at the head of Vittal Mallya Road, also known as Kingfisher Marg

Empire State Building ripoff, also on Vittal Mallya Road

Office building

Small office buildings coming up all around town

The head of MG Road, Bangalore's main retail drag, with a metro line coming up along the road

Apartment blocks in various styles in the suburbs

Somnathpur

I made one trip out of Bangalore - to the famous 13th century Hoysala-style temple in the village of Somanthpur, a few hours drive away from Bangalore. I'd visited Halebid, Belur and Hampi as a kid, and might need to formulate another trip to take in all the important Hoysala temple sites sometime in the future!

Houses in Somnathpur village around the temple compound

Temple enclosure

Temple entrance

The Kesava or Chennakesava temple at Somnathpur

Typical sculpture detail

Interior ceiling

Temple interior

Thursday Afternoon at Bakhtiyar Kaki's Dargah

2009-08-07T20:03:00.001+05:30

I visited Bakhtiyar Kaki's dargah in Mehrauli on a Thursday, the busiest day at Sufi shrines, and here are a few images of the scenes and crowds, to complement the images and descriptions in the main post below.

North entrance to the dargah

Passageway leading into the dargah complex

Bakhtiyar Kaki's tomb

Women are not allowed into the courtyard of Kaki's tomb, and can only view the tomb through this screen

The large dargah complex has many courtyards and open spaces, some crowded and some more leisurely, like this one

Makeshift marketplace at the western entrance to the dargah

Food being prepared for pilgrims and visitors to the dargah, in front of the Zafar Mahal gateway