Theory Of Settlement - book review

DELHI
Lights, Shades, Shadows
- DN Chaudhri

As the title suggests, the book is about the capital of India, Delhi ; its conception , transformation and regeneration. Its about the perception of author ,who is a photojournalist himself, about the city and its history. It starts with author shifting to Delhi with his family in 1942 and takes us along a joyously historical ride of crumbling forts and modern buildings of New Delhi .
Wheather it is the narrow lanes of Old Delhi, partition and the influx of people that insued or the college life at delhi university, Delhi : Light, Shades, Shadows captures the spirit of the capital city.
As its content, the book covers the monuments of delhi as it is largely a journey of author and his lens. Awsome and rare pictures of an era gone by adorn the pages of the book. The Delhi of Lutyens, the Delhi of Mughals and the Delhi of "outsiders", the book shows them all through due reference to architecture. From his flat on Nicholson Road, near Mori Gate, to Chandni Chowk , the secratariat, to the far-off monuments , the authors takes the readers down a memory lane, supported by the photographs of a vivid visual quality which only a gifted photographer can have.
Apart from photographs, the book is supported by an impressive narrative which keeps the reader going. There is nothing which can compare with his stark account of the burning city in the terrible days of 1947; of the dramatic view,or the lack of it, of the Clock Tower in Chandni Chowk. One can almost smell the cauliflowers near Moolchand Hospital and sarson ka saag near Chirag Delhi in the author's description of Delhi's winter.
The book itself is divided into three parts.
Where "Light" deals largely with the days spent in Old Delhi, "Shades" is all about growing up as a teenager and enjoying life loitering in the lanes of Delhi University;
Its many corners and nooks having there own stories. "Shadows" is a rediscovery of sorts, capturing Lutyen's Delhi in all its charm and shortcomings and the important comissions coming the authors way which established him as a photojournalist.
It beautifully describes the building up of a city , the changing of narrow lanes that only had bicycle and "bail-gadis" as its main vehicles to widers roads for motor-cars. Its almost a shock for the modern delhi-ite when author says that Rashtrapati Bhavan was visible from Jama Masjid and Qutub Minar from Raisina Hill ,thus forming a kind of visual view points for the otherwise endless stretch of blue sky.

Here is a book, that will prove to be nostalgic for some and absolutely fascinating for others.The photographs, stories and text combine to tell the story of a Delhi that was.