![]() ![]() New Delhi was the 13th and it became the grandest architectural commission since Rome. But when I grew up studying history and counted, the buried layers led to the figure of 12: 1. So, like Rome, New Delhi also got to have its proverbial seven cities. ![]() ![]() ![]() That was the classical, ancient civilisational seed of Britannica. Dictums like ‘All roads lead to Rome’ moved from the english tongues to our lips. When the British announced the shift of the seat of their ‘jewel in the crown’ from Calcutta to Delhi, they were back on that dahel-the threshold-which had symbolised a point of entry for the Turks, Afghans, Mongols, etc, and they consciously saw their Dilli transformed to New Delhi. To me-who was born in New Delhi in 1950-it is energising to live in a city which is forever mercurial, effervescent and adolescent. Being the capital of the only continuously alive civilisation in the world, it owes this resurgence to itself, and to India. Delhi is as much a buried city as one that wilfully layers itself anew. ![]()
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