A talk on Humayun’s Tomb & The Nizamuddin Urban Quarter in Delhi and the Tombs of Hyderabad, Friday 18th September 2015

After an absence of 18 years, Ratish Nanda, Project Director for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in India, presented a talk in the McWilliam Room at the Glasite Meeting House, on the inspiring work of the Trust.

Despite short notice, the talk was exceptionally well attended.  In the words of one of the attendees, “It was inspiring and reviving at every level, human and aesthetic  and – effectively – societal, and humane and moral and historical.  At points I was stupefied by the simple vividness of the huge ideas and the scale and energy; and the concretion (so to speak) of his imagery and anecdote.  To express things in buckets, man hours and the human necessities and local (& aesthetic/historical) religious complications – and the detail of the stepwells not being full of coins/archaeological treasures on account of immemorially diving little boys.

It was a privilege to be present; it was an evening which will long remain in my head and upon my lips.” These thoughts were was echoed by many others.

The talk was organised by BTA and co-sponsored by the Sir Patrick Geddes Trust and the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust.