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INDIA | GARDENS | GARDEN DESIGN
The beautiful Mughal Garden of Delhi
(and its lasting nectar of immortality)
The whole of New Delhi was designed and developed as a model garden city by a team of architects kept together by Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944) and Herbert Baker (1862–1946), garden designer Gertrud Jekyll (1843–1932), Kew-trained horticulturist and landscaper William Mustoe (1878–1942), and builder Sobha Singh (1890–1978), who was the father of the controversial but eminent writer Khushwant Singh (1915–2014).
It was a fantastic undertaking, stunningly taking even less than twenty years until delivery. Lutyens and Baker were quarreling almost all the time — often over details, but sometimes over really important stuff, like the inclination of Raisina Hill, and whether or not it was acceptable that it kept the majestic complex of Rashtrapati Bhavan (the palace) out of view for almost half of the ride along the stately Rajpath.
In the meantime, Mrs Emily Lutyens was touring the world with her daughters, promoting the young Krishnamurti as a new-born Messiah, while back in Delhi, Sobha Singh, still a young man, turned out to be more than a mere builder. Growing in his role at a spectacular pace, Singh turned from builder to being an advisor, a counselor, a coach, a marriage therapist, a negotiator, a middle-person, a…
