Two and a half centuries ago the most dramatic arc facing Delhi was epitomized by the beloved Shah Alam II, blinded in his own court by the rapacious and psychotic Ghulam Qadir during the months he occupied and ransacked the royal palace.
Fourteen years ago, the city’s narrative arc starred the metro -
Delhi’s greatest public asset financed by the Japanese.
And today, a star actor in Delhi’s narrative is her first skyscraper - the Navin Minar -
part of an experimental project
for urban development that,
if successful,
will totally remake the way Delhi
grows vertically
and deals with her urban poor.
A contemporary shahr ashob might ask:
Where is Delhi’s first skyscraper
going to go?
What is there now
in the very spot where visitors
will first behold
this gleaming minar
as they enter from Main Patel Road
in their luxury cars?