delhi - the imperial hotel

How exquisitely colonial- white symmetry plush with marble and white tile, fountains, chandeliers and caryatids. A sort of controlled luxury. Too prim to let itself go completely into baroque excess but making sure that you don’t mistake it for anything but a pleasure garden. The trim highlights the doorways and the junctions between the surfaces with stone and white cornices. The curtains in the verandah are blue and the servers wear the red of carpets.

it was only to see a lutyens building that we had lunch at the imperial hotel. 

delhi - the chandni chowk morning walk

one morning we walked through chandni chowk, past the newly built metro station with all those men waiting for the day to begin, near the gurudwara and then to the jain temple with the bird hospital. floors of cages with the smell of bird shit and feathers. the streets were still waking up and we were told stories about lovers, sacrifice and death. the jain precinct had these exquisite doors leading into courtyards. further down the road more of the narrow lanes and tiny homes one of which was mirza ghalib's house which now is a pretty ordinary little museum. down the street past the new buildings on the main road is the Fatehpuri Masjid at the end of the street. a large red courtyard with a water fountain. the spice market is behind- an incredible world. a courtyard building completely transformed into a city.

the garden around the metro station

jain temple with birds hospital

parathe wali gali

the spice market and the mosque

delhi - the devi arts opening

the day after the cinema city opening all of trouped towards gurgaon for the opening of the raqs show at the devi arts foundation. an empty gallery (almost) to be filled in over the next few months.

delhi - india gate in the evening

 an evening walk in august in the location that would become the place for candles to burn when the middle classes want to express revolt. where kausik and vishal made a girl swing in abandon.

update time

it has been a long time since i wrote on this space. the last post i see was just a photopost about the cinema city show in delhi. nothing about the imperial hotel or the lovely morning chandni chowk heritage walk. silly of me. this space has been my archive for so long- it was silly of me to let it go. so here i am revisiting it. for the next few days i shall try and come up to speed with the happenings in the past three months including so many people and places. so bear with me as i try and catch up. i start with the delhi posts first...

delhi - cinema city at the ngma

some images from the delhi cinema city show. the show then went on to bangalore at the ngma. unfortunately i could not go there as i was in america.

tyre shop / home

i wish there was time to really develop this beyond the intermittent observation- displaced domesticities - this time the tyre guy near avon whose shop is separated from the home with a plastic curtain. 

demolition

what can you say about the perpetual reconstruction happening along any road in the city that has not been said before? but no matter how many times you see it, it still takes your breath away. spectacular ruin.