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

Pics by Aparna Goyal

Braving the summer heat, a group of heritage enthusiasts got together to explore the landmarks of the revolt of 1857 in Delhi. We covered sites located in the neighbourhood of Kashmiri Gate which falls within the old city, the former Mughal capital of Shahjahanabad. The starting point was Nicholson’s cemetery, named after Brigadier General John Nicholson who died fighting the rebels in 1857. He was fatally shot during the storming of Lahori gate, during recapture of Delhi by the British in September 1857. Another important person who is buried here is Master Ramachandra, professor of Mathematics in the then Delhi College. Across the road from Nicholson’s cemetery are remains of the city walls and the Kashmiri gate. The road roughly marks the demarcation between rebels inside the city and where the British were camped on the Ridge. The Kashmiri gate is one of the four surviving gates of the boundary of Shahjahanabad. The others which still stand are Ajmeri gate, Turkman gate & Dilli gate. Kashmiri gate still bears the damaged done to it by the British cannons while storming the city. There is also a memorial to the dead of the British army at this gate. Continue Reading This Post