Where the Streets Lead - Softcover

Ahuja, Sarayu

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014025952X ISBN 13: 9780140259520

Publisher: Penguin, 1997

Synopsis

Language: English
Pages: 384 (Throughout B/W Illustrations)


Back of the Book

The secret life of streets

Cities are remembered by their streets, which have a personality all their own. Some are broad and indolent, others brisk and efficient and some resemble courtesans, painted and bright by evening, drab and gritty during the day.

Sarayu Ahuja takes a leisurely stroll through streets in cities as different as Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mumbai, viewing them not in terms of configuration and design alone but also in the context of their history and their sights, smells, sounds and people. In the process she shows the evolution of a city's individual character. She visits bustling Jaisalmer, suspended like a drop of water over a sea of sand; Chandigarh, grand and imperial; Benaras, intimate and feverish with activity; the lanes of Siddpur, secluded and withdrawn from the public eye, and a host of other cities.

The outcome is a unique study of Indian streets by a professional architect which, besides being an entertaining travelogue, shows us our streets in a new and revelatory light.

About the Author

Sarayu Ahuja trained as an architect and town planner at Madras and Tokyo universities. The evolution and growth of cities, especially those in Asia, has been a focus of her research, and she has written extensively on this and other subjects for newspapers and magazines in India and abroad. She is the editor of Indian Architect and Builder, and recently scripted episodes for a Channel Four television series on major Indian cities. She lives in Mumbai.

Foreword

I first met Sarayu five years ago. She was introduced to me by a mutual friend. She seemed to me unusually intelligent and versatile: she was an architect; she edited an architectural ma

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 014025952X
• ISBN 13: 9780140259520
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 386