A Moment in Architecture

For the uninitiated, looking at Indian architecture is like viewing a forest.  Obscured by the profusion, at first the eye sees only dense vegetation, in a state of confusion, conflict and chaos.  Only when the focus narrows to a single tree, a shrub, a blade of grass, does the forest’s variety become discernible and an order emerge.  Behind the unseemly mess of an Indian city, behind Mughal portals and inside stepwells, in old mountain houses and dark temple interiors, lies another picture of Indian architecture.  The author of this book, an architect himself, takes the reader on a personal journey through its labyrinths, providing insights into structures that dot our lives.  He casts his gaze – sometimes lovingly, sometimes despairingly – on buildings as diverse as the stone citadel of Jaisalmer, Rashtrapati Byhavan and the facades of Greater Kailash, on a stepwell at Adalaj, a Corbusier church, a Frank Lloyd Wright house.  In so doing, he lays bare ideas and facts about these buildings, while reflecting on the sensory and meditative qualities of experiencing each of them.  Written from the vantagepoint of a practicing professional, the book is an intimate autobiography of architecture.