If Delhi, today, is known as a 'city of flyovers', we can thank the 1982 Asian Games, because that is when it all began.
Sitting right opposite a makeshift dump yard and flanked by grimy wholesale shops selling car tyres, it’s pretty hard to believe that this nondescript budget hotel is a witness to the many ups and downs of the Capital’s 100-year-old history.
Manoj Sharma, along with HT lensmen Raj K Raj and Virendra Singh Gosain, indulges in some window shopping to find out what has made them so special all these years...
In the 1930s, two decades into the new Capital and a few years after New Delhi was formally inaugurated, it was Connaught Place that held all the indicators of how the new city was doing, and where it was headed. Avishek G Dastidar reports.
Think of a pleasant sunny day with light breeze. Now think of a large open space in the heart of the city with lush green lawns for a family outing. The India Gate lawns? That was exactly the hangout area for Delhiites three generations ago.
In the Delhi of 1930s, the traffic on roads comprised a few cars, tongas, bullock carts, horse-drawn carriages, palanquins, beasts of burden and large number of pedestrians.
Overcharging, not going by the meter; rude; declining to go to a destination — sounds like an autowallah in Delhi? We are actually talking about the taxi drivers of the Capital of 1920s.
When Emperor George V and Queen Mary arrived in Delhi for the coronation Durbar, they were first welcomed at the Delhi main railway station. Avishek Dastidar and Sidhartha Roy report.
Levelling the rocky Raisina Hills to transport construction material and men was far less a problem than getting the railways to agree to remove its existing line. Avishek G Dastidar reports.
The market, where many shops have no names, witnesses a carnival-like atmosphere every hour of the day, crowded as it is with shoppers from all parts of the country,
Manoj Sharma reports.
Now that it’s summer, you expect the ice-cream cart to do its rounds of the neighbourhood. What Rajkumar sells is not ice-cream, but something even more mouth-watering for film buffs — he vends original prints of CDs and DVDs. Damini Purkayastha tells more.
Only if you stand up and voice your anger will you be heard. Chalaan those monsters till kingdom come and maybe, just maybe they’ll finally slow down, cribs Damini Purkayastha.
In a repeat of last year’s monsoon mayhem, traffic in the national Capital came to a near standstill following Thursday evening’s downpour, even as waterlogged roads and choked drains took a heavy toll on motorists.
Air conditioned, relatively empty during the day and with dark corners inside the stations, Delhi Metro is the new coochie-coo spot for couples.
The biggest entertainment on Delhi roads has to be the quirky slogans and quotes written on the ‘backside’ of autorickshaws. While
Horn OK Please is the most ubiquitous line written on most autos,
autowallah bhaiyas have started getting more creative.