Pixelated Memories: July 2012

July 31, 2012

Alipore Zoo, Calcutta

“To those who can remember the dirty and rather dismal looking approach to Belvedere, the improved and satisfactory condition of the neighbourhood, at present, must afford a very striking contrast. Both east and west of the roadway leading from the Zeerut Bridge were untidy, crowded unsavoury bustees. Today we shall find on the site of the old bustees, the Calcutta Zoo. A very large share of the credit for the establishment of this pleasant resort is due to Sir Richard Temple, who was Lieutenant Governor of Bengal from 1874 to 1877, but long before the scheme assumed any proper shape, Dr. Fayrer, C.S.I., in 1867 and again in 1873 Mr. L. Schwendler (known as the 'Father of the Zoo') had brought forward and strongly urged the necessity of a Zoological Garden. The visit to Calcutta of His Majesty King Edward the Seventh, then Prince of Wales, was seized upon as an auspicious occasion. On the 1st January, 1876, the gardens were inaugurated by His Royal Highness, and in May of the same year they were opened to the public."
–
Sir H.E.A. Cotton, Politician–Barrister–Administrator–Journalist–Historian–Writer, in his book “Calcutta Old and New”

"Painted horses"

I am back in Calcutta (I don’t like the new name – Kolkata), the city as ancient as civilization and famous for its rich ancient customs that complement the poverty, filth and chaos of everyday life. For some one born and brought up in Delhi, comparisons are natural – Delhi is ancient but timeless and extravagantly royal, Calcutta on the other hand has long abandoned such pretensions – the city is vintage, the structures seem to be falling apart and yet the people make it work one way o the other, as if some magical force is holding its existence together. My ramblings were vast and my imagination soared sky-high as I made the 4-hour long journey, accompanied by two college friends Sunil and Aakash, from the sleepy suburb of Durgapur where our college is located to the heart of Calcutta with the simple motive of spending the entire day at Calcutta Zoological Park, popularly and in most official documentation referred to as Alipore Zoo. Though I, like all photographers, experience boundless pleasure in clicking nature and getting the occasional picture-perfect click, I do not possess the means to spend several days in exorbitant resorts in the middle of forests/sanctuaries like the Sunderbans or Kaziranga, and therefore zoos form an integral part of my itinerary whenever I get the rare opportunity to visit a new city/state. Alipore Zoo had long been on my list too, however my problems were compounded since most of my friends hate zoos and I was again stuck with the dilemma of having to travel alone and cut costs (which is a genuine issues given my spendthrift tendencies) – thankfully Aakash and Sunil came to my rescue the day before I was to travel to the zoo. So here I was, sitting cramped by the window seat of the bus and taking in the sunrise and the cold morning breeze while music blared loud into my earphones and my two companions slept unperturbed by noise and motion on adjacent seats.

The colors of Alipore

Alipore Zoo began out in the year 1800 as a small menagerie maintained by Arthur Wellesley, the then British Governor of Bengal, at his residence in Barrackpore, a suburb of Calcutta. Wellesley soon returned to England, leaving his collection in the care of one of his Zoologist friends. Plans were underway regarding establishing a proper zoo in Calcutta and they had support from the Asiatic Society of Bengal too, but couldn’t materialize due to unavailability of enough space to create a massive garden complex to house the animals – Sir Richard Temple, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, shifted the mini-zoo to Alipore and upgraded it into a formal, full-fledged zoo in 1873, thereby making it the oldest designated such property in the country. The zoo was finally inaugurated on January 1, 1876 by Edward VII, Prince of Wales and thrown open to the public the same year; the first batch of animals were from the private mini-zoo of the German electrician Schwendler, who also happened to be a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal besides involved in setting up of telegraph communication between Agra and Calcutta and studying the feasibility of electric lamp lightning of Indian Railways; a monumental stone obelisk still stands in the zoo complex in his honor. The zoo saw rapid expansion as many more animals were gifted by Indian and British residents from all over the country; today it has a gigantic variety of flora and fauna on display in its 45 acre campus. Initially, the zoo was maintained by Schwendler himself along with Botanist-Professor George King; the first Superintendent of the zoological garden was Rai Bahadur Ram Brahma Sanyal, a most notable manager of the species in the zoo and far ahead of his times when it came to animal husbandry and upkeep – he introduced several successful breeding programs to the zoo, and also maintained journals where he recorded all observations regarding the animals (housing, feeding, behavioral patterns, reproduction and treatment) which he later published as “A Handbook of the Management of Wild Animals in captivity in Lower Bengal” (1892).

Schwendler's commemorative obelisk

Sleep-deprived as we were (left college at 4:30 am to catch the first bus), and after enduring the long journey to Calcutta and then to the zoo, naturally the expectations were high in our minds and there was eagerness writ all over our faces. However, as soon as we stepped down from the rickety bus, we were disappointed to see the small gate of the zoo and the cramped spot it was confined in, I had already mentally started comparing it to the Delhi Zoo (refer Pixelated Memories - Delhi Zoo), which, flanked by a medieval fortress and with its large enclosures presents a postcard-perfect moment. A colorful and extremely chaotic, though monotonous in its fares, bazaar was operating outside the Alipore zoo; there were vendors selling ice creams, hats, faux leather belts and guavas, while a line of taxis stood at attention, ready to drop one anywhere one fancied to visit; if one escaped being heckled by a group of beggars in tattered clothes and braided hair, there always were taxi drivers heckling visitors with inquiries regarding where they wanted to go, irrespective of if one just stepped out of the zoo complex or a bus/taxi! Waiting in the queue at the ticket counter and promptly realizing my folly of comparing cash-strapped, congested Calcutta with affluent, flamboyantly lavish Delhi, I promised myself to keep an open mind and just take in the sights and sounds of the place instead of judging and photograph the beautiful birds, animals plants with the new camera that my maternal uncle very recently gifted me.

Standing proud - Swamp Deer

A small board outside the zoo notifies public that no eatables, plastic materials and polythene wrappers are allowed within and photography is permitted for free but for videoing the premises one needs to pay Rs 250 per hour. Once inside, we immediately looked if there was a map depicting a general idea of the enclosures and walkways and after consulting it we decided to follow the path that first took us along the aviary cages and then the enclosures of lions, tigers and jaguars. The map was actually very old and ill-maintained, and at first we thought that the zoo was quite small, but then realized that even the faded portions of the map were part of the premises and we shall have to spend at least 4-5 hours if we wanted to explore the complex in its entirety. The zoo was almost deserted and besides us there were only a few tourists.

Astounding, right? - Pariah kite

The remarkable bird enclosures, visible from a distance, are impressively designed in several unique shapes and boast of ample space for the small creatures within – some resembled small pagodas with their roofs topped by pointed finials, while others were massive circular wells surmounted by conical roofs and divided into numerous smaller sub-enclosures – the extraordinary range of bird species that the zoo boasts of can overawe any visitor – there are peafowl, pheasants, mynas, macaws, parrots, parakeets, kites, ostriches, emus, cranes and pelicans, besides numerous migrant birds are also lured into making stopovers at the zoo by the prospect of vast green spaces and water bodies that it has to offer. To the grey-green monotony of the cages, the beautiful birds bring tinges of vibrance and heartwarming attractiveness; several of the enclosures are also equipped with large wicker baskets and baked-mud pots (“matka”) for the birds to nest in. However at first glance, the enclosures appear to be eyesores, given that the wire meshes are thick, rusty and often double-layered, making photographing the quick avian fellows all the more difficult – the weather was opening up and dark clouds rumbled overhead while we were exploring the zoo premises, but clicking the majestic peacock that had begun strutting around its enclosure with its magnificent plumage spread and glistening was near impossible thanks largely to the thick wire mesh.

Large - One of the bird enclosures; it is divided into numerous segments radially.

Next we headed to the mega-fauna enclosures – the massive elephants were roaming about in the extremely humid weather, perhaps like us waiting for the dark, ominous clouds overhead to open up and drench the world; the obstinate tiger was content with lying down somewhere in his thickly vegetated open-air enclosure (bound by a wide moat), the tall grass ensured that we couldn’t catch a glimpse even though we had circumambulated the enclosure several times in no less than 20 minutes. Among the other animals that we saw which didn’t have open-air enclosures but cemented cages were striking white tigers, regal lions, a very muscular Royal Bengal tiger and a magnificent jaguar – the condition of these animals was deplorable since they were being housed in very small spaces with cemented floors that certainly would heat up in summers and be chilly in winters, besides not providing a natural, foliage-and-rock environment to these mighty beasts; visitors, largely uneducated in animal husbandry and even otherwise, made mockery of the animals, teasing them and rattling the enclosure bars every time the animal decided to sit in a corner or enter the shed at the back; many of them resorted to shouting and making loud sounds to scare the animals – I felt a surge of pity and even asked one of the boys there to not do the same, but to no avail! At least, in this aspect, I have to concede that Delhi zoo fares far, far better than Calcutta zoo – the maintenance of animals is superior, so is the enclosure size and the treatment meted out to the animals by the visitors and zookeepers.

Majestic - Indian Elephant, once a common sight on the country's streets but have almost disappeared now and can only be seen in zoos and protected wildlife sanctuaries.

Moving ahead we saw deer, not aplenty as in Delhi Zoo – the Calcutta Zoo makes up with gorgeous birds what it lacks in terms of deer specie. There was a lone rhinoceros, grazing in a corner of his large enclosure, a hippotamus who soon disappeared in the depths of his pool, a bear that when teased by visitors ran to hide in his cave and a gharial basking in the sun. In a corner of the zoo complex, a segregated area has been created for inhabitation of bat species, and there were literally several scores of them flying around the tree tops or hanging upside down from the branches, it sent a chill down everyone’s spine just to look at them and almost everyone (except us since we were so engrossed clicking them) proceeded rather sharp and rapid over the low bridge through the bat territory. I was reminded of the recently released Batman movie (The Dark Knight Rises) which I really enjoyed watching in a theatre just a few days back, again with the same set of friends. Underneath the bridge flows a deep artificial stream and on considerate observation, one can observe large shoals of blue-ish fish swimming under the clear surface. The Reptile House too is located close by, but it was under renovation when we visited and therefore closed for public entry.

An attempt at minimalist photography

There’s a restaurant just around the corner next to the zoo entrance – shaped like a storybook cottage and lined with stone tiles in orange and deep red, it seemed to have jumped out of the pages of “Hansel and Gretel”, though the food served consisted not of cakes and doughnuts, but rice, noodles and Chinese-style curry dishes. The entire landscape is dotted with numerous small shops offering refreshments like water bottles and ice creams. At certain times it seemed that the zoo has more green space than enclosures and looks more like a glorified garden – couldn’t the space have been utilized more efficiently, perhaps increase the size of existing enclosures rather than stuff so many animals in small, pitiful cages?

Classic storybook-like - The zoo's restaurant

The zoo, until 2006, was home to Advaitya, a 255-year old Giant Aldabra Turtle, said to be the same as the one in the private menagerie of Robert Clive of the East India Company – it was said to be the oldest documented living being alive at the time of its death. Robert Clive gained the East India Co. a foothold in the Indian subcontinent through territorial expansion following military campaigns against the Indian sovereigns and their proxies and governors, under the suitable excuse of avenging British citizens’ death in the notorious “Black Hole Tragedy of Calcutta” (refer here Pixelated Memories - Black Hole Memorial) – not just Clive’s fame, but also his huge tortoise far outlived him, in fact Advaitya saw the establishment of the East India Co.’s territorial rule, its demise, the “Quit India” Movement, independence and subsequent partition of India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh, besides the banalities and frivolities of everyday grind. The turtle was the zoo’s pride and its demise was deeply mourned by the zoo authorities as well as all the major newspapers of the country.

Black beauty - Black-crowned crane

For the past few years, the zoo is in news for all the wrong reasons – inability to handle the large population of animals, thefts, inefficient and often unethical cross-breeding programs, death of animals due to stress and lack of space for movement and so on. The zoo has also been warned by the Central Zoo Authority of India (CZAI) about the same and it risks its license to handle and showcase animals being revoked – even PETA India has called the place a “death trap for animals”. Our trip, however, was a good one and we enjoyed the time spent there. So did the other visitors and kids we observed. Certainly the zoo does need to address the issues about animal health and care and also try to improve itself in terms of visitor experience – benches meant for the visitors were unclean, signboards on the cages detailing the animal/bird inside were either absent or old and faded, water taps were broken and water dripped from everywhere except the faucets themselves, plus more route maps definitely need to be installed with immediate effect. I would hate it if the zoo were to be closed down, but given the space crunch that they face, especially by the pressure exerted by urbanization and infrastructure development in the surrounding areas, the zoo cannot expand any further, and it would perhaps e in everyone’s interest to shift part of the animals to another area, or create subsidiary zoos – point in case, the aquarium just across the road maintained and funded by the zoo authorities (we couldn’t visit it since it had begun raining cats and dogs by then). Awareness campaigns, if possible to organize and sustain, would unquestionably go a long way to attract publicity and visitors and profit the zoo and its financial needs. In my opinion, the zoo is a must visit place, especially during the period of late July to November since that’s when the migratory birds, especially the large and stunning Sarus crane, travelling to their winter destinations stop by at the zoo.

A thing of beauty..

Location: Alipore
Open: All days except Thursday (If a holiday falls on Thursday, the zoo remains open that day and the weekly closure is observed on the next available working day).

How to Reach: One can avail bus/taxi services from different parts of the city. The locals, especially the bus conductors/taxi drivers, recognize the zoo by its vernacular nomenclature “Alipore Chiria ghar”, since most of them are uneducated, hence it’s better to ask them in vernacular.
Timings: The ticket counter opens from 9 am to 5 pm; the aquarium opens from 10:30 am to 5 pm
Entrance fees: Rs 20 (Rs 5 extra for the aquarium)
Photography charges: Nil
Video Photography charges: Rs 250
Time required for sightseeing: 4 hrs

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July 27, 2012

Presidential House, New Delhi

“From the middle of the King’s Way, it (the dome) appears to be neither behind the Secretariats nor in front of them. Enough that, in a symmetrical plan, it lies between them. For its character is so arresting, so unprecedented, so uninviting of comparison with known architecture, that, like a sovereign crowned and throned, it subordinates everything within view to increase its own state, and stands not to be judged by, but to judge, its attendants. The Secretariats, remarkable buildings in themselves, exist only in relation to it, and inasmuch as they minister to its success. Its individuality, its difference from every dome since the Pantheon and particularly from the domes adjoining, lies in its intrinsic solidity. It has the character of a pure monument..it seems not to have been built, but to have been poured compact from a mould, impermeable to age, destined to stand for ever, to watch the rise of an eighth Delhi and a hundredth Delhi. Let the breath of destruction threaten all around; this it cannot penetrate.”

– Robert Byron, The Architectural Review, "New Delhi"

The President's palace

The Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, also known as the Presidential House or the Presidential Palace, is regarded as one of the most magnificent regal buildings in the entire world and guarantees to blow one away with its grandness and royal charm. Sadly the premises, often admired as well as derided as symbolic of British resolve and pretensions of invincibility, remain closed for public entry for a larger part of the year and open only during the month of February when rare and colorful roses and tulips in the renowned Mughal Gardens bloom – I visited the place this month when I was taken for a guided tour of the nearby located Parliament House (read here for the complete story – Pixelated Memories - Parliament House) and hence could only savor its grandeur from outside and see part of the complex through the large, ornamental iron gates, emblazoned with gold medallions bearing the Ashokan lions, the symbol of Indian sovereignty – but even the little that is visible behind the decorated, intricately designed gates yields credence to the extraordinary conceiving and crafting of the entire structure and fills one with pride upon seeing the seat of Indian governance housed in a comparatively modern marvel of architecture that still competes with the architectural and artistic grandeur of the other sites that this city, strewn with magnificent tombs and gigantic monuments dating several centuries back, boasts of. The grandly classical structure was designed and built by the British, after evacuating and demolishing the villages that stood at this site prior to the construction, as the Viceregal House in a symbolic gesture declaring to the revolting Indians that they were here to stay, but as the curse of Delhi goes – whenever a new lineage of kings establishes their capital in Delhi, they soon lose all their fortunes and spoils – the British were soon ousted from the country. Indians, to whom the governance and administration were then transferred, quickly rechristened the building as the Presidential House and it has since seen Delhi being transformed from a city under construction to the capital of one of the largest powers in the modern world. Situated alongside the twin majestic Secretariat Blocks and the gigantic Parliament, the architectural masterpiece is the seat of Indian politics and power from where all laws, governing a nation of over 1.29 billion citizens, emanate and are monitored.

Fountains and greenery. Notice the ornamental cannons too. (Photo courtesy - Indiatvnews.com)

The first feature of the palatial building that catches a viewer’s eye is of course the colossal dome surmounted on the colonnaded front facade – inspired by the stupa at Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh) according to architectural scholars (and not by Pantheon (Rome) as Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, the chief architect, had declared it to be), the giant dome, measuring 22.8 meters in diameter, becomes visible from afar when one begins to walk towards the place from the opposite located India Gate or the Parliament House. The entire enormous building sits on a majestic artificial plateau known as the Raisina Hill and as one approaches the traffic square from whence the Secretariat Blocks (refer Pixelated Memories - Secretariat Blocks) begin to visually appear as conjoined flanks of it, one can observe the large incline cutting through the walls of the Blocks and rapidly inching towards the top where the outline of the massive dome and the equally enigmatic, towering Jaipur Column (more on it later) dominate the horizon. But from here, the copper-clad, purplish dome appears far from the giant that it is; in fact as one begins walking up the incline it gradually diminishes in size and disappears as a consequence of the immense gradient angle, but reappears immediately as one begins to draw level with the top of the incline and then makes its vastness apparent – this optical phenomenon has its background composed by an interesting tale of how two close friends, Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker, the city planner-architects tasked with converting the colonial vision of an inspiring capital into actionable plans and enormous structures, fell out following professional differences in opinions regarding the conceiving and construction of this remarkable capital – originally the Viceregal House (as the Presidential House was then known as), Lutyens’ brainchild, was supposed to be on top of the Raisina Hill so that its magnificence could be observed and wondered at from afar; but Baker, entrusted with the design and construction of the warm Secretariat Blocks and the Parliament and also supervising the construction of the Viceregal House according to Lutyens' plans (since Lutyens decided the cold, hilly ambiance of Shimla suited him better), got Lutyens to agree that the Secretariats would be better suited seated along the incline and the Viceregal residence could be shifted to the other side of the plateau. It was only later that Lutyens realized that the consequence would be that from the Secretariat side, the Viceregal residence would visually disappear once one began walking towards it and that, in his opinion, was an architectural travesty since his regal masterpiece was supposed to be the toast of the new capital (it still is!). He felt that the Secretariat Blocks obscure the grandeur of his Viceregal House and held Baker, one of the most eminent architects of his age and the chief designer of British South African capital Pretoria, responsible for this (despite himself approving the plan in the past), even going to the extent of considering his inability to get the plans modified later on as his defeat at “Bakerloo”!

Recently issued stamps depicting the palace and its architectural features. I purchased the entire sheet from General Post Office, Calcutta, another beautiful Victorian edifice. (Photo courtesy - Rainbowstampclub.blogspot.in)

Despite their bitter quarrel, both Baker and Lutyens believed that the imposing structures they were building should reflect an amalgamation of the Indian and British styles of architecture, but went about it very differently – while Baker used classical European architectural forms (like the colonnaded pavilions of Parliament House) with Indian architecture as subdued decorations (pierced stone lattice screens (“jaali”) of Parliament House and Secretariat Blocks), Lutyens tried to achieve a fusion of the two (the dome, Buddhist railings and overhanging eaves (“chajjas”) of the butterfly-shaped Victorian style Presidential House). But the latter remained in his personal correspondence and communications deeply disenchanted with and fiercely against Indian architecture and artistic preferences as well as the lifestyle and social practices of the subcontinent (which explains his vehement denial that the imposing dome was drawn from the Sanchi Stupa or that the sculptures of lions and elephants in the gardens were based on Indian artistic preferences). Openly scornful of Indian beliefs and the attempts of architects to create an Indo-Victorian fusion architectural-artistic style, he never explained why he believed in the Indian legend that guaranteed a dynasty’s reign in Delhi as long as its bells did not toll and embedded realistically sculpted stone bells below the eaves of the palace. He also went on to invent a new style of carved pillars for the front facade of the Presidential House – christened as “Delhi Order”, these neo-Classical columns fuse Greek and Indian elements and use Indian bells as ornaments hanging along the capitals (pillar head) between the flourishes of Acanthus leaves.

Stone bells, Indian legends and Lutyens' disbelief (Photo courtesy - Indiatvnews.com)

The building was to be built in 4 years following King George V’s unprecedented durbar in Delhi and the subsequent announcement to shift the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi (until then, the Viceroy lived at and administered the subcontinent from Calcutta's Raj Bhavan, refer Pixelated Memories - Raj Bhavan, Calcutta), but soon thereafter the work came to a near halt as a consequence of the heavy toll of men and resources that World War I exerted on Britain and its colonies, including India. In 1929, after 17 years of hard labor on the part of architects, supervising engineers and construction workers, the enormous palace, consisting of 340 lavishly furnished rooms, 15 acres of heartwarming ornamental Mughal Gardens, numerous outhouses, its own hospital, swimming pool, tennis and squash courts, stables for the Presidential guard of cavalry and camel-mounted soldiers and a huge golf course, all spread over 330 acres of prime space in the heart of the city, was finally handed over to the Viceroy as his official residence. It remains till date the world’s largest residence of any head of state – in contrast, the White House of America is sprawled in just 18 acres, slightly more than only the formal gardens of the Indian President’s residence! The entire building that was constructed at the cost of Rs 1.2 crores (12 million) today costs the exchequer Rs 100 crores (1 billion) for maintenance per year!

Lavishly regal - The North Drawing Room where the President meets important dignitaries and government ministers (Photo courtesy - Indiatoday.intoday.in)

It would be fairly incorrect to consider the Presidential Estate only Lutyens’ architectural legacy, even though he was involved in finalizing almost every detail, right from the architectural plan to the design of furniture and shape of door handles – numerous other architects and administrative officers, including Viceroy Lord Hardinge who had envisioned the shift of British capital from Calcutta to Delhi and wanted the buildings to assimilate Indian features in a British framework, were also involved in the planning and even design of numerous components of the estate. In fact, Lutyens was unequivocally opposed to the utilization of red sandstone in the construction of these fantastic edifices and was convinced that white marble should be the preferred choice. Lord Hardinge had insisted upon the creation of Mughal Gardens as opposed to Lutyens’ obdurate desire for an English garden; the gardens were eventually landscaped and planted respectively by the architect Walter Sykes George and W.R. Mustoe, Director of horticulture. Drawing from the Indian architectural motifs which employ elephants and lotus flowers as the primary artistic motif, the British sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger designed the beautifully decorative lamp-bearing stone elephants that mark the enclosure walls of the Presidential Estate and exist at the flanks of the ornamental gates.

Jagger's lamp bearers (Photo courtesy - Phototravelings.blogspot.in)

Commemorating the efforts of His Highness the Maharaja of Jaipur Major-General Sir Sawai Madho Singh who had partly commissioned, through his rich treasury, the building of New Delhi, the huge Jaipur Column, installed in the middle of the vast lawns separating the ornamental gateways from the palatial building, was also designed by Jagger. Piercing the sky, the unusually designed pillar consists of a 148-feet high ornamental column surmounted by a brilliant six-pointed glass star (“Star of India”) emerging from a lotus-shaped bronze pinnacle. The flower and the star together weigh over 5 tonnes! Carved into the column is a plan of Delhi as it was envisaged by the planners and the inscription –

"In thought faith

In word wisdom

In deed courage

In life service

So may India be great."

An unparalleled majesty - View of the court and walkway leading to the Jaipur Column and the palace (Photo courtesy - Wikimedia.org)

Interestingly, Indian Presidents and their families do not use the luxurious living quarters that Lutyens designed for the Governor-General and instead occupy only a few rooms spread over two floors of one of the wings of the house – the humbly down-to-earth C. Rajgopalachari, the first and last Governor-General of independent India, opted not to live in the master portions because of the out-of-place royal feel they afforded and instead chose to convert the considerably smaller rooms belonging to the Vicereine’s lady-in-waiting into his residence – all Indian Presidents since then have followed the tradition and live in the same rooms. The Viceregal rooms are now used to luxuriously accommodate visiting heads of other countries when they travel to India.

Mughal Gardens - Trees, walkways and water channels. The two smaller domes in the background are Herbert Baker's Secretariat Blocks (Photo courtesy - Blog.theotherhome.com)

Apart from the humongous dome that is flanked by a small domed turret in each cardinal direction and connected to the roof by a white perforated screen resembling a Buddhist railing, the monotony of the tremendously large roofline is only interrupted by the chattris (domes mounted on slender pillars) and saucer-like fountains built into the structure. Given that it is nearly impossible to see a living soul within the compound to actually compare the size of the megaliths or justify the enthralled response the various features of the palace evoke in several writers and photographers who have been close and inside, one feels an explicable difficulty in understanding the true extent of the gigantism of the entire building and even its numerous features. Photographs, though extremely useful in visualizing the individual features, undeniably fail to evoke the mesmerizing effect that the place has upon visitors and onlookers who had not expected its colossal proportions. The interiors are lavishly rich and adorned with tasteful tapestries, luxurious drapes, rich carpets, captivating paintings, expensive chandeliers, realistic statues and priceless antiques. There is even a large library possessing over 20,000 books on several topics, a museum and several courts for outdoor sports including polo. The Durbar Hall (Throne Room), located immediately underneath the dome, boasts of a 2-tonne chandelier and a statue of Gautam Buddha belonging to 5th century BC. The Ashoka Hall, originally a ballroom but now used for ceremonial occasions like swearing-in ministers and Governors, is adorned with a striking ceiling painting depicting Fateh Ali Shah, the King of Persia, hunting with his sons.

Awe-inspiring! - The Ashoka Hall where state ceremonies are held (Photo courtesy - Indiatoday.intoday.in)

The entire fortified area is guarded by policemen and security officers round the clock and protective barriers have been put in place on all roads leading to it; cars too aren’t allowed to stop for more than two minutes around the Presidential House or the Secretariats; photography, though not prohibited, is limited by the presence of security officers and army personnel; armored vehicles recce the area intermittently and armed personnel carriers are a common site around this secure fortress. All this ensures that the place doesn’t get the same amount of attention from tourists as other monuments in Delhi – and that’s one reason that there are so few photographs and information about the ceremonial “Change of Guard” that takes place every Saturday morning in the Vijay Chowk square opposite the Secretariat Blocks or the dazzling sight that the area turns into on national holidays like Republic Day (26 January) and Independence Day (August 15) when it is lighted up with brilliant incandescent bulbs and adorned with vibrantly colorful flags. I intend to return to photograph the structures on both occasions as soon as I return to Delhi permanently.

Nocturnal glory (Photo courtesy - Trekearth.com)

The architectural marvel that the Presidential House is speaks highly of its British architects and Indian engineers and workers (most renowned of course thanks to Khushwant Singh’s numerous essays and articles – Sujan Singh and Sobha Singh, his grandfather and father respectively), the likes of whom do not find a mention in the annals of modern history, yet played their parts in shaping (or rather, constructing the modern capital of New Delhi. The regal structure, along with the marvelous Secretariat Blocks flanking it will charm you and force you to peer closely and try to find a living soul inside the elaborately detailed grille iron gates; the beautiful Jaipur Column will force you to photograph it; and in case you visit during the months of February-March, the Mughal Gardens in all their bloom are a treat against the city’s cement jungles. And every visitor does experience the same enchantment that Robert Byron (who was very biased towards Lutyens and antagonized Baker through his highly critical commentary about Parliament House/Council House. His quotes can be read in the post about the Parliament House – Pixelated Memories - Parliament House) did when he visited the new British capital soon after its unveiling and admiringly wrote about the principal structures and city plan in “The Architectural Review” (year 1931) –

“The building is remarkable for its gigantic size, its perfect proportion of mass and detail, its colour and its ponderous adhesion to the earth. But its essential genius, its novelty, lies in the way these qualities have been brought to serve a taste in architectural form which pertains specifically to the twentieth century…The Viceroy’s House at New Delhi is the first real justification of a new architecture which has already produced much that is worthy, but, till now, nothing of the greatest.”

More of the Mughal Gardens (Photo courtesy - Indiatvnews.com)

Location: Raisina Hill, New Delhi
Nearest Metro Station: Central Secretariat
How to Reach: The Central Secretariat metro station is located immediately next to the Parliament House, only 15 minutes walk away. Private cars should be avoided as stopping in this high-profile area is not allowed.
Timings: Entry prohibited except in the months of February-March when Mughal Gardens are opened for public viewing. The timings and dates for the same are notified to the general public by various media channels.
Photography/Video Charges: Nil
Other monuments located in immediate vicinity –

The seat of British administration before the capital shifted to Delhi - Pixelated Memories - Raj Bhavan, Calcutta

Suggested reading -

July 22, 2012

Operation ASHA

So I am back in “chaotic” Calcutta to attend the new semester of college & there is crazy written all over the place. Classes that seem never to end, boring lectures & the hostel room allotment fiasco – there is so much on my hands that I have not been able to write for several days. Only good feeling these days is the pride on raising my batch mates’ eyebrows by telling them about the experience I gained during my summer internship. I was working for a non-profit, non-Govt. organization called Operation ASHA (OpASHA) for 7 weeks back in Delhi. I have been thinking since then about writing a post about the amazing work done by Operation ASHA (“ASHA” means “hope” in Hindi). So here it is.

The NGO has the mission of eradicating Tuberculosis (TB) from the world over, & with its centers in India & Cambodia & expansion plans for African nations, it is slowly inching closer to its aim. Yet a lot needs to be done & the time for celebration hasn’t come yet. TB as a disease has become one of the biggest scourge of the developing world, killing several million people every year & orphaning several thousand children. One-third of World’s TB population lives in India, & here I shall focus on the Indian context only. The disease is perfectly curable & the medicines & diagnostic facilities are provided by the Govt. of India free of cost under a scheme called RNTCP/DOTS.

The condition is aggravated by the fact that the treatment course takes more than 6 months & most people quit the treatment mid-term (default), leading to complications & drug-resistant TB. This is where OpASHA becomes more efficient than other treatment providers. By employing a huge work force of Counselors who would provide the treatment to the diseased, alongside detecting new patients & motivating the existing ones not to deter from their treatment course, OpASHA tries to minimize default rate to less than 3%, which is much lower than the figures of Govt. of India & other NGOs. I had the opportunity of interacting with several such Counselors & patients.

HOPE - Giri Prasad, a TB patient in New Delhi, is a tailor by profession & hopes to get well within 6-months by completing his treatment course under OpASHA supervision. He wants to get back to his tailoring business & relieve his father (behind) of the pressure of looking after the family.

Oh, I almost forgot, must tell you about my assignment there. I was supposed to write the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for various field operations & tasks. Alongside I did photography for OpASHA & also helped interview patients & Counselors in order to help spread awareness about their suffering in order to raise more funds for the NGO. A large part of my job involved working in coordination with the Counselors & the office staff. The personnel employed by OpASHA were individually very efficient & eager to do their part in community service. Most of them are young & armed with great experience, they are here to make a change.

OpASHA New Delhi staff

OpASHA opened several centers throughout India – in Delhi, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh etc so that patients don’t have to walk for more than 10 minutes from their residence to take the medicines (TB treatment under WHO guidelines specifies that patients consume the drugs under the supervision of a trained personnel to prevent missed-doses, most patients avoid medicines & quit the treatment because of the side effects involved). The NGO soon aims to reach the tribal population too. This is going to be a new challenge for the organization as most of the tribal groups don’t even have a recognized dialect or written script. The organization tracks its patients by a unique system called eCOMPLIANCE, developed in association with Microsoft, where through small laptops & fingerprint readers all patients are registered to a central database & their attendance marked whenever they visit OpASHA center to consume the medicine (on their scheduled time of course). At the end of the day the data is updated to the central record system via an internet connection & simple phone text messages are sent automatically to the concerned Counselors regards their absentee patients & they then visit the patient’s home to administer medicines. The staff is proud of this system of Biometric mapping, which is a brainchild of the CEO Sandeep Ahuja. An entire team of technocrats is devoted to the upkeep & upgrade of the system.

When I visited the urban slums of Delhi, I saw poverty which I cannot describe in words. The suffering, the misery, the pain & desolation of patients would move anyone. The centers are located at places where there are electricity cuts for more than 4 days at a stretch, water supply is erratic, medical facilities are non-existent, education is but a distant dream & poverty & malnourishment abound in every corner. The shadow of death lurks in every corner. I tried to capture some of the emotions through my camera, yet it was a task next-to-impossible.

DESPAIR - Diagnosed with TB second time within a single year of being cured, Vipin Jha is battling malnourishment & a growing feeling of despair. The sole breadwinner of a family consisting of 4 daughters, all less than 10 years of age, & wife, he is now bedridden. If not provided with food immediately, his chances of survival are low.

OpASHA is doing a really commendable job & we must all show solidarity with the patients by helping the organization expand its operations base by contributing monetarily. I feel that all of us should donate to OpASHA whatever amount we could muster, no matter how minimal, & help them help our fellow men & women in distress. Please see the following link for the same –

Donate to Operation ASHA

Photos © Sahil Ahuja/Operation ASHA

July 13, 2012

Delhi Gate, New Delhi

Suppose you are walking down a street flanked by a bustling marketplace on both sides - the shops stock everything - clothes & accessories, electrical instruments & articles that have become a commonplace in the modern world. The street is in fact a modern one, wide, filled with cars & low-floor buses, there are banks, hospitals & ATMs jostling for space with mosques & Victorian buildings. All of a sudden you come across a medieval structure with arches & bastions, standing in the middle of a traffic square & looking down upon the passer-bys with an impertinent gaze. What would be your reaction??

Mine was literally "Oh Delhi!". The city never ceases to surprise me, every time I think I have covered an entire area & there isn't much left to document, a new structure pops up out of nowhere. So here I was in Shahjanabad (now referred to as Old Delhi), the city that the Mughal emperor Shahjahan (ruled AD 1628-58) established in the year 1638 - Shahjahan had intended the city to be a replica of paradise, had commissioned huge mansions for his nobles & generals, built wide-tree lined avenues, created canals & public squares. But as the city's population increased, magnified by the influx of migrants from Pakistan after the country was divided, Shahjanabad turned into cramped quarters, the mansions were divided into smaller houses, the streets were taken over by shops & flea markets, the ancient structures have all but disappeared. Just a few of them survive not being encroached upon - the Delhi Gate that now stood before me was one of them.

Shahjanabad was enclosed by a high rubble wall as a protection against foreign invaders. The strong wall was interrupted by 14 large, square gates & several smaller ones. Very few of these gates & wall portions have survived the ravages of time & human maltreatment - most of them were destroyed during the British bombardment of the city during the 1857 revolution. The larger gates were named after the cities they faced - the Delhi Gate faced the older citadels of Delhi that existed before Shahjahan built his capital.

The square-shaped, bastion guarded gate is majestically located on one of the major streets of Shahjanabad/Old Delhi, at the beginning of Daryaganj Street (literally “River Facing Avenue”). Close by exists a small portion of Shahjanabad's wall - there is even a Martello Tower that the British added for defense after retaking the city. Not to be confused with the Delhi Gate of Red Fort nearby, this was the city gate, used to enter the city & not the fort. A road next to this gate leads to Red Fort. These aren't ordinary gates, to be opened up one way or the other, these gates are large, monumental structures, built of stone & rubble, with high walls, arches & bastions. Soldiers kept guard over these gates & made sure no hostile element entered within the city limits.

The Delhi Gate

The gate, built with a combination of locally available stone & red sandstone, is now kept locked & a guard stands on duty inside it in order to prevent any encroachment by hawkers or any illegal activity inside its premises. The guard would open the gate if you request him & even tell you about the historical importance of the place & the fact that over the years, the number of enthusiasts wishing to enter the gate has been increasing. The high arches seem inviting & yet cleverly conceal all their secrets from onlookers. The arched doors are large enough to permit the emperor’s convoy of horses & palanquins to pass through without any difficulty during his royal procession to the nearby located Jama Masjid & other parts of the empire. The outside walls have stone carvings & are embossed with geometrical designs & medallions.

The front view

Once inside, you notice that the place is being used to store large concrete slabs & stacks of building material along one of its arched inner sides. I saw mongooses running amok in the interior. The walls had once been plastered & one can still see the remnants of geometrical patterns amidst the flaking plaster in the niches.

The inside view

The 2 bastions along the side of the gate stand tall, keeping an eye all around with their numerous arrow slits. As a whole the structure looms desolately over its surroundings, higher than other buildings & shops nearby, with a small unkempt garden for company behind it. The garden is now used as a cricket ground by local kids, which in my opinion is a good thing in today’s playground-starved Delhi localities. Interestingly enough, the playground is said to be haunted!! Legend has it that a British soldier ("Sipahi"/"Tommy" - take your pick) was in love with a local girl & wanted to spend the rest of his natural life with her. However he later found out that the girl was soon going to be married - in a fit of rage & desperation he shot the girl & himself too. It has been claimed that the Peepal tree (Ficus religiosa - Sacred fig) is now haunted by a Chudail & people can hear her heart-rending screams at night (A chudail is the Indian version of a banshee - she has a dreadful appearance with her feet turned towards the back, is said to appear to young men as a pretty maiden & then drains their blood & virility). The Tommy is also spotted at times - he comes walking out of the gate with his head in his hands & then walks through the Daryaganj street. Now the atheist in me loves these stories - why does the banshee only haunt that certain tree? How come the Tommy carries his head in his arms - he shot himself, he wasn't beheaded. & why isn't entire Daryaganj considered haunted since the Tommy walks past the entire area. People & their silly stories!!

The side view

Entry to the upper floors is prohibited & the doors are now grilled & locked. No amount of persuasion moves the guard to open the grille.

This impressive structure is now being maintained by A.S.I. If you ever happen to visit this structure on Sunday, do pay a visit to the Sunday Book Bazaar which is one of the major attractions of Daryaganj, drawing hordes of people from different parts of the city in search of their literary fill (refer Pixelated Memories - Daryaganj Sunday Book Market).

The "How-can-it-be-haunted??" view

6 months after this post was published - The Govt. has become strict with its orders, entry to the gate premises is locked. The guard refuses to let you enter even if you tell him you have been inside & you write for the city. Another monument taken away from the people. Sad!

Location: Daryaganj, Chandni Chowk
Open: All days, Sunrise to Sunset.
Nearest Metro Station: Chandni Chowk Metro Station
How to reach: As you exit the metro station, walk straight till you reach a temple, a small street near the temple exits to the main Chandni Chowk Street (just follow the crowd, they would enter a very narrow lane). On this street, on one side, you can see the large Red Fort looming, walk till there & take a bus from near the Fort to Delhi Gate. Alternately, buses ply to Delhi Gate from different parts of the city, just climb on those going to Old Delhi (Purani Delhi)
Entrance Charges: Nil
Photography/Video Charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 20 minutes
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