A corridor in time

A corner in Connaught Place

- Mayank Austen Soofi

Go to the Regal Cinema building in Connaught Place. Walk down the corridor to the far end overlooking Sansad Marg and stop. Can you hear the faint piano strains of Vinteuil’s Sonata drifting through the air?

You cannot. But if you are of a certain age, memory may supply what the corridor no longer does. Here was once Delhi's grand piano shop.

Cities are shaped as much by what has vanished as by what still stands. They are composed of both the present and the past. In this stretch of Connaught Place, the two exist side by side.