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Recreating History At Humayun?s TombOffering a glimpse of the great Mughal art of landscaping in the midst of Delhi?s concrete jungles, the restored gardens at Humayun?s Tomb were thrown open to visitors last week.
The first privately funded restoration of the garden of the tomb, which is a World Heritage Site, was completed last month. It was a joint effort of the Agha Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the aegis of the National Culture Fund (NCF).

Mr. Chairman, Chief Minister, Your Worship the Mayor, Sheriff of Bombay, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to begin by thanking the Chairman and Members of the Maharashtra Friendship Society for their very kind address and reception. My visit to Bombay is short and I am, therefore, all the more appreciative that this reception should be on my day of arrival.

It has given me the wonderful opportunity to meet once again the many friends whom I have not seen since my last visit here.

The Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Dar-es-Salaam followed in August, 1946. To it thousands of people came from all parts of the world, especially lndia, Europe and the Middle East. Hundreds made the journey by air, thousands by train, by car and by lorry, from all parts of Africa, many enduring much hardship in travelling from such out of the way places as Abyssinia, Belgian Congo, Uganda. Convoys of cars came from South Africa.

At a quarter past five on the afternoon of Sunday, March 10, 1946, a deep hush fell upon the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. Here over 100,000 people, from various parts of the world., had come to witness one of those magnificent ceremonies which arouse wonder and amazement in the minds of men. It was on this day, and at this hour, that His Highness the Aga Khan was to be weighed in diamonds to celebrate the sixtieth year of his Imamate. Seldom before can Bombay, even in its pageantry and glory, have looked upon such pompous ceremonies, such splendour and colour.

THIS IS A BIG JAMAT KHANA IN SAURASHTRA AREA

India has bagged three of the seven Aga Khan Awards for Architecture for 1998.

The winning projects are civil engineer-town planner Himanshu Parikh's slum networking project at Indore, architect Charles Correa's Vidhan Bhavan at Bhopal and Norwegian architects Per Christian Brynildsen and Jan Olav Jensen's lepers' hospital in Chopda taluka in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district.

The `Barefoot Architects' of Tilonia, led by Bunker Roy, have won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for 2001.

This prestigious international award is given every three years. According to the Aga Khan Foundation, the Barefoot Architects' programme of works in Rajasthan's rural community of Tilonia has been given this award ``for its integration of social, ecological, cultural and educational elements in such a way as to aid rural development while promoting the architectural traditions of the region''.

Extract of News Conference by His Highness the Aga Khan
New Dehli, India, 22nd September 2006