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CONFERENCE IN INDIA, NO FLIGHTS HOME

Professor Jane Ridley holding her book on Lutyens

Professor Jane Ridley with her book on
Lutyens, The Architect and His Wife

Thursday 29 April 2010

Jane Ridley, Professor of History at Buckingham and expert on the architect Edwin Lutyens, found that her recent trip to a conference in India took longer than she expected. Here is her report:

My trip to Delhi was even more exciting than I anticipated.

The purpose of my visit was to attend a conference of INTACH, the Indian National Trust, on the conservation of Delhi (17-18 April). INTACH is preparing an ambitious bid to make both Lutyens' New Delhi and Shahjahanabad, the Delhi of the 17th-century Moghul emperors, into World Heritage sites. The aim of this important conference was to raise awareness and discuss options for conservation, and I attended as one of the team sent by the Lutyens Trust.

Delhi is grilling in the hottest April for 50 years, and in temperatures of 46 degrees we toured Shahanabad, a vibrant slum dense with history. I gave my paper on Lutyens' New Delhi, and the days passed in a whirl of conference sessions, dinners, meetings and a deputation to the President's Secretary.

Meanwhile in Europe volcanic ash closed the airspace, and our flights home were cancelled. To wait for rescheduling would take weeks. We took a bet that London would be open by Friday 23 April, but buying tickets was no simple feat, with airline websites blocked, phone lines jammed and banks refusing credit cards. Somehow or other I found myself at Delhi airport at 3 a.m. on Friday, climbing onto an Air India plane… Quite a lot poorer, but no longer a stranded Brit.

Report by Professor Jane Ridley and the Web Team