This Sunday evening was a welcome respite from the usual Delhi summer. The dust storm lowered the temperature which allowed all of us a pleasant heritage walk in Lodi Garden. We were a group of about 20 enthusiasts which included architects, lecturers, lawyers and two very very young children. These heritage walks are also a great opportunity for people to interact. In fact, two of the walkers found that they lived within 50 yards of each other for past 20 years, never knowing about each other until they met on this heritage walk !

Lodi garden is actually an early 20^th century British creation, who called it the Lady Willingdon Park. Post-independence it was re-landscaped under Joseph Allen Stein. Stein also designed some of the important buildings in the neighbourhood: the IIC, the Ford Foundation are the most well known. The name Lodi Garden was also given post-Independence & comes from the fact that the most monuments belong to the reign of the Lodi kings. In the 20^th century, before the British built a new capital in Delhi, this area was a village called Khairpur. People were living in an around these very monuments. Continue Reading This Post