In the winter of 1913 the writer was sitting with the present Prime Minister on this rock and wondering how beautiful a city would arise from what Lord Curzon described as 'the deserted cities of dreary and disconsolate tombs’.
New Delhi: The rock in question is the present day Raisina Hill and the city of tombs -- New Delhi. The excerpt is from book titled New Delhi: Making of a Capital that captures the transformation of New Delhi into the capital of India within the time span of 10 years, from 1912 to 1922
Authored by Malvika Singh and Rudranghsu Mukherjee, this coffee table book includes an exhaustive collection of some rare photographs and blueprints of the city's structures like the secretariat and Parliament, put together by Pramod Kapoor.
The book even includes rough sketches and elaborate drawings by Delhi's original architects, Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker. But what make it interesting are pictures like one of the India Gate with sheep grazing around, that can easily be mistaken for a Grecian pasture and tidbits like the cost estimate of a whopping Rs 13 crore for the entire city's construction.
Making of a Capital is proof of the fact that 'cities arise from dust' while this books impresses one visually with its rare pictures of the city, it can become a tedious read especially when it goes into conversations between Lutyens and Baker.
Most importantly its focus is limited to just the Government structures.
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