The Sunday Times May 1, 2022 3some great photos.” Needless to say, my
wife demurred. I still remind her of this
lack of co-operation at strategic moments.
Pete Wolstencroft, Lancashire
SOUTH GEORGIA ON MY MIND
I went to South Georgia, the Falklands
and the Antarctic peninsula on a 2005
cruise, which was fantastic (“Return to
South Georgia”, last week). We had seven
stops in South Georgia, the last being Gold
Harbour, which was amazing, standing
amid 500,000 king penguins. You are not
supposed to approach them, but if you
remain still they will come to inspect you.
I recommend it in the highest possible
terms — but it’s not cheap!
Barry Landy, via thetimes.co.uk
I work as a teaching assistant at a
secondary school and have been using
your articles to help my students analyse
Boris caused a stir, but Ukrainian and Russian visitors
are what Delhiites really want, says Geetanjali Krishna
Johnson is
considered
by Indians
to be one
part Trump,
one part PG
WodehouseP
eacocks raise their plaintive
cries as the sun sets over India
Gate. Dusk over the iconic
Delhi war memorial — towards
the end of the Central Vista,
facing the presidential estate, is tinged
with the glare of construction lights
instead of the mellow lamps of yore.
Screens block its once green lawns, dug
up for a redevelopment project that critics
say is ill timed, not least because the
pandemic has torn holes through the
economy. The city designed by Sir
Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert
Baker during the British Raj will
never be the same again, I muse as
I drive to India Gate for ice cream
— a time-honoured tradition.
“No one comes to India Gate
these days,” Ram Avtar, the lone
vendor there, says. “It’s a
construction site, and who wants dust
on their ice cream?” In years gone by, he
says, when foreign dignitaries — especially
heads of state — visited, ice-cream sales
went up as curious onlookers thronged
to watch the bulletproof limousines. For
him, the two-day visit last week of Boris
Johnson — considered by Indians to be
one part Trump, one part PG Wodehouse
— is unlikely to lift his business fortunes.
“The crowds might have come if the
construction work had not been ongoing,”
he says, “but perhaps not, now that Covid
cases are again on the rise.”
During our conversation my Twitter
feed buzzed with posts about Johnson’s
visit to Gujarat. Apparently he learnt there
that in pre-independence India the British
had imposed a tax on salt — a fact that
every Indian child has been taught by the
age of ten. He termed it “astonishing”. The
verdict here is that Johnson should have
done his homework before coming.
Ice cream in hand I stroll across Raisina
Hill, on which stands the president’s
estate, the north and south blocks of the
Secretariat Building and the prime
minister’s office — the seat of the country’s
political and bureaucratic power. The
planned redevelopment of Central Vista
will change all this. The two blocks —
heritage buildings — are to be converted
into museums as part of the works.
Beyond these corridors of power,
too, much has changed in Delhi since the
pandemic. Covid and now the invasion ofCOVER PHOTOGRAPH:XINHUA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCKJUI-CHI CHAN/GETTY IMAGESDELHI
POSTCARD FROM...
The medieval
monument of
Bara Gumbad in
Lodhi Gardens
and, above, iced
treats at a marketUkraine has had a disastrous impact on
Yashwant Place, the shopping arcade so
beloved of Russians in Delhi’s diplomatic
enclave. Situated in the basement of a
nondescript grey building with stern lines
reminiscent of Soviet bloc architecture, it
draws aficionados of leather apparel and
semi-precious jewellery. Shopkeepers,
most of them as fluent in Russian as in
Hindi, say that they have lost Russian and
Ukrainian customers. “Both countries
love precious and semi-precious
jewellery here, but our business has
dwindled to nothing since the war
broke out,” says one shop owner,
sitting sweat-beaded in the
deserted market, his air con
switched off to cut costs.
Nearby in Lodhi Gardens the
jacaranda, royal poinciana and
laburnum have bloomed early after
the hottest March since India began
compiling records 122 years ago. Rose-
ringed parakeets screech as they fly
across Lutyens’ Delhi, the neighbourhood
in the centre of the city named for its
designer, to roost in the capital’s parks.
The gardens had a chance to regenerate
during the coronavirus lockdowns. And
new sightings of leopards, long vanished
from Delhi, are being reported from
urban forests on the outskirts of the city.
Another lesser-spotted species, the
great unmasked shopper, can now be
seen in Khan Market, a street of boutiques
loved by well-heeled Delhiites. After a
third Covid wave in January, restaurants
have recently been allowed to reopen to
full capacity. While some fixtures — such
as Café Turtle, a popular hangout within
the Full Circle bookshop — have pulled
down the shutters, glitzy French upstarts
including Ladurée are doing brisk
business selling expensive macarons.
Amid these celebrations of life is the
ever-present memory of the Delta variant
that wreaked havoc in spring 2021 — last
year obituaries jostled for space in the
newspapers; this year it’s announcements
of first death anniversaries, observed
among Hindus with prayers and rituals.
At the funeral of a beloved cousin in
May 2020 I watched his pyre burn under
a shower of laburnum flowers. This year
their delicate scent remain redolent of
those we’ve lost, while reminding us that
we are still alive.WIN A
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tweet @TimesTravel
or comment on one of our
stories at thetimes.co.uk.good writing. Jamie Lafferty’s article not
only shows South Georgia as a place that
must be visited, but also that his writing is
exemplary. It is a perfect example, mixing
bite-size history, whaling and climate
change with selling South Georgia to his
readers. I want to thank him for making
my job easier and bringing alive a bit of
the world that my students would not
otherwise be able to find on a map — A+.
Shaz Thompson, South YorkshireMAKING A SPLASH
You could have included the pool at
Hotel Catalonia Plaza Catalunya, with its
perfect bar, spa and fitness area (“Top 7
rooftop pools in Barcelona”, last week).
It’s a short walk from the Museum of
Modern Art, the Boqueria market and
La Rambla boulevard. Since discovering
it I have returned to this hotel many times.
Patsy Smith, Kent