As he talks to us, his first customer has arrived. 45-year-old Jatin Kumar, a daily wage laborer needs a passport size photograph for some court work. He will pay only Rs 50 to get his four B&W photographs clicked and printed in just 5 minutes.

“Technology has made us lazy, taking photographs used to be an art. Now the thinking has disappeared and all they do is click,” 42-year-old photographer explains. “Digital cameras can never give you such joy,” he adds.Clicking a photograph with this ancient camera looks so interesting you can just stand there and watch him as he starts his work. How he adjusts the camera’s focus by sliding the ancient Carl Zeiss lens back and forth along a track before ducking beneath a large piece of cloth at the back to slide the photo paper behind a glass plate.

The shutter release button has been an integral part of camera for long is nowhere to be seen here. Tikam Chand just removes the lens cap for one or two seconds to expose the photo paper to make an image. Then he comes back under the coverings, sticking his hand in tubes made of a blue jeans leg to shift the paper from developing chemicals into the fixer, then into a plastic bucket to rinse off the chemicals.

The image made after all this will dampen you spirits, its just a negative image and he will have to shoot this negative to make it positive by going over the same process once again.
His clientele includes locals as well as tourists from Russia and Thailand. He’s out here every day, shouting, calling tourists to get their photos clicked. On a bad day he’ll earn nothing, on a good day it’s up to Rs 500.

The story of this box camera and how his family got it has almost become a part of the forgotten past now. All he knows is that, his grandfather somehow received the camera as a gift from the royal family. For the last three decades, this camera has been the sole bread earner for him, his wife and two sons.Will either of his sons, aged 6 and 11, go into this business? “They only like the new stuff, cell phones and computer games etc.” he says. “I guess it will probably end with me.”

bu Gaurav Shukla

It was not so long ago that the most revered member of Rajasthan’s aristocracy late Rajmata Gayatri Devi left her mansion to sit on a stretch of pavement to protest against the real estate developers who are aiming to change the skyline of this historic pink city Jaipur.

Her actions were only symbolic, but they clearly echoed the increasing anger amongst the conservationists at the damage being caused by rapid construction in one of the most popular tourist destinations of the country.

With the economic boom, the new explosion in building construction has altered the city’s character. Pink city is losing its distinction from other cities, as new Jaipur looks like any other city in India with similar architecture, with malls and multistory buildings covering its skyline.

Founded in 1727, Jaipur is known for its richness of palaces, forts, walled city area and the medieval maze of bazaars. Although major monuments have been benefited from restoration work, conservation experts are concerned that the rest of the historic city is drowning beneath new, often illegal, construction work.

The famous walled city of Jaipur has also not been left behind with this entire construction spree. Radical alterations are being made to the ancient buildings of old Jaipur without realizing the loss of its original architecture.

With each passing year, Jaipur is in less of gain and more of loss from urban modernization. The question of the peak hour is whether constructions done in a wide scale will leave Jaipur with its own identity which makes it memorable and popular as the Royal Pink City.

By Gaurav Shukla

It was Britain’s addition to the famous bazaars of Delhi during colonial era in 1933, quite different though from the narrow, congested ones of old Delhi. Connaught Place thus over the years became the main commercial hub of the city.

According to the historical texts before Connaught Place was built people from the Walled City, Nizamuddin and Mehrauli used to come here for partridge shooting, for it was a wilderness with a profusion of Babool trees. In 1857 many of the so-called mutineers hid here after escaping from Shahjehanabad via the Delhi, Ajmeri and Turkman gates, until they could escape to the Punjab, Rajputana or the United Provinces.

In these 75 odd years, the British built Connaught Place has lost its sheen and grandeur. So, the upcoming Commonwealth Games have come as a boon for this market. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) was long planning for a true makeover to bring back lost glory and lustre. As a part of its ‘Return to heritage Project’, the NDMC has prepared a plan to revamp and redevelop this proud landmark of Delhi.

“The idea is to bring the glory back to CP,” says Anand Tiwari of the NDMC. However, everyone does not seem pleased by the renovation work which was completed on the pilot basis in C-Block of CP. “Restoration is a good aim but it’s been terribly executed,” Devinder Khanna, owner of New Delhi Stationary Mart says. “There’s almost no effort in preserving heritage and traditional look of CP,” he added.

‘Return to Heritage Project’ includes provision of heritage sensitive signage, engineering improvements of roads, drainage, sewerage, water supply and sub stations and many more along with development of adequate parking lots, new look walk ways and more.

There has been huge debate over flooring of the verandas of the heritage buildings in CP. While Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) advocated that sandstone be used to re-develop the area, New Delhi Traders Association (NDTA) has opposed this saying Sandstone flooring would be difficult to maintain and granite should be used instead. Granite flooring was used in the C-Block pilot project.

“The sandstone flooring in B-block has already degraded though it was changed only a few months back. Sandstone is porous and is difficult to clean. We want granite flooring as used in C-block, but it should not have any design and should be of uniform colour,” NDTA president Atul Bharghav said.

Conceived as an ambitious project the “redevelopment of Connaught Place” implies a complete renovation of all blocks, and the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has said time and again that its deadline remains 2010, before the Commonwealth Games get underway.











Credits: NDMC Website for Renovated CP Image & “In the corridors of time” by R.V. SMITH for Historical References

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