Time changes everything. Some things become beautiful with time. Some lose their sheen. Nothing is left untouched, especially our cities. Some transform into maximum cities from trading towns while others lose the stunning coastline to a concrete jungle. Time preserve some and perish others. On the eve of India’s 72nd Independence Day, I was visiting my grandparents in Gujarat. Like a master storyteller, my grandpa was narrating his Independence era stories with quintessential statements like, “hamare zamane mein toh aisa hota tha” (in our time it used to be like this). He went into his room and fetched his well-preserved black and white photo album to give us a glimpse of India: then and now.
Connaught Place, Delhi. India: then and now
As I was flipping through his photo album, I couldn’t help but compare the “then and now” photos of the cities and famous landmarks I have grown up looking up to. The world today looks so different from my grandpa’s time. There has been a paradigm shift in everything – mindset, lifestyle, economy, and culture to name a few. India’s economy, which was once characterized by Nehruvian socialism, stands vastly ‘Modified’ today. We are one of the fastest growing economies in the world. But with that growth, the makeup of our cities has changed remarkably. This topic requires a great deal of research and analysis. So, I’ll leave it for now and instead share few pictures from India: then and now.
Humayun Tomb, Delhi. India: then and now
My grandpa’s story piqued my interest in knowing more about the past of India. I was surfing the internet when I came across Expedia’s new interactive tool where we can travel back in time and explore some of India’s famous landmarks. The best part about this tool is it shows you how places looked in the past and how they look in the present.
Landmarks of India: then and now
So, put on your monochrome glasses, visit the Expedia website, flip the images one by one, and travel back in time!
If you are interested to visit some offbeat places in India, do check out these articles:
What an interesting, reflective post! You are so blessed to have a grandfather who kept so many photos and has so many stories to tell about your country’s past. I have lost all my grandparents and really wished they were still alive so I could compare stories too.