Delhi has been continuously inhabited since at least the 6th century BC. The remains of seven major cities have been discovered below ground. Despite being built, plundered, looted and rebuilt repeatedly, the city aboveground lives on, a symbol of modern India.
In Old Delhi – originally established by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1639 as Shajahanabad – a labyrinth of tiny crowded lanes is lined with crumbling 17th-century havelis (Mughal mansions).
These once grand havelis still bear the richness and grandeur of a long-lost indigenous architectural technique and the gracious lifestyle it once upheld. Most were once proud residences of the rich and famous. Today they lie in crumbling neglect. Ornate facades defaced with rusted signs and sprouting satellite dishes. Balustrades broken. Beautiful latticed balconies choked lifeless by a forest of cables.
This series explores the aboveground city through the figurative theme of a wild forest that slowly smothers an ancient city, reducing it to ruins. The forest here is the tangle of overhead cables and rusty commercial signs, symbols of ugly modernity. The ancient city, once a byword for grace, beauty and modern elegance, is Old Delhi.
Yet, despite the stranglehold that modernity impresses on Old Delhi’s city aboveground, life thrives on the streets below. Much as its done for centuries.
Hawkers shout out colourful descriptions of their many wares. Men, women, animals and vehicles jostle for space. A heady aroma of incense and spices cloak the air. Mid-day call to prayers blare out from loudspeakers somewhere high above the narrow streets, muffled by a canopy of cables.
For more on this series, please visit my website www.rohanghosh.net
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
