The Taj Mahal is possibly the zenith of Persian architecture. Ait Mughal building but also an evolution of Persian arts and ideas (the tomb garden).
Among the many tales told of the skills and talents assembled to build this architectural marvel, and there is an unlikely one about the alleged chopping off of the artisans' hands. No evidence exists to buttress such an outrageous claim (but ask me about the Amhersts instead) even as the habitat that housed the craftsmen survives five centuries later.
This mausoleum that bankrupted an empire should be seen as a monument to the labour that built it ! It should honour the hands that carved its delicate stone screens and the Italianate inlay work, the ‘mazdoors’ that carried the Makrana marble, the engineers who laid its innovative foundation, the cooks who fed an army of workmen.
A living breathing bustling neighbourhood the ‘basti’ of Tajganj, seen here against the Taj, sits even today against the walls of the tomb garden built by the labour force, the workmen who were ancestors of the current population.

In the early rays women walk into the medieval fortress that rises on a rhyolite bluff above the city of Jodhpur. The ancient geology of the Indian subcontinent has shaped its socioeconomic and political stories, and the desert region of Rajasthan has many forts and epic sagas.

Going down from the monastery of Thiksey steps lead past a white-painted ‘chorten’ or a reliquary of a monk from a bygone age. The modern world has come right to the base of this monastery, and a curious blend of the old and new takes place.

The city of Srinagar sits on the shores of the Dal lake, and much commerce and social activity occurs on the waters of the lake itself. Houses abut it, do business with visitors arriving by boat.

The city of Jodhpur in the haze of a winter morning, seen over the ramparts of the fortress that stands guard over it.

Timber and brick houses line the Jhelum river as it passes through settlements in Kashmir valley. The rich textures are markers of traditions and crafts across ages that have shaped the architecture of ordinary folk.

Senate House of the GND University sits in a field in Punjab, in place of golden waves of corn.

An early architectural project by Jasbir Sachdev, it is evocative of the style of Sachdev’s mentor – le Corbusier. With raw-finished concrete cast by hand and the four sides of the building each presenting a different architectural story, the building is a declaration of a modern Punjab in newly democratic India.