This had been in the works for the past few weeks, and I finally managed to find a small space not too far away from my house, where I can work out off and set up shop. This space just came up and I grabbed it immediately as it is not far from home, is not the top most floor (they heat up like an oven in the summers) and has ample natural light.
Real estate in Delhi is expensive and when I say expensive I mean really expensive. A small artist can not just afford any kind of a commercial space as the growing economy has got up the rents to levels that an individual just can not afford. The only option for a lot of people like me are the Lal Dora areas of Delhi.
The term `Lal Dora’ was first coined in the early 1900s during the Raj. In 1908, land was consolidated by the then revenue officials and maps made. In Delhi area, there were 365 villages. On each village map, officials marked in red the area where the villagers had their homes. The area within the red line was residential and the land outside that zone was agricultural. It was from this red line that the term Lal(red in Hindi), Dora (thread in Hindi) originated.
In 1961, when the Delhi Development Authority acquired land for development, it was decided that the villages would not be disturbed. So, while agricultural land was acquired, the lal dora land remained intact. Over the years, many villages were urbanised - of the initial 365, a little over 200 remained rural - but the lal dora rules apply to both urban and rural villages.
One of the most prominent Lal Dora areas in Delhi is Hauz Khas Village. There are a lot of art galleries, restaurants, high end designers and other creative folk based there. A few independent designers came and set up shop here decades ago for its cheap rent and the quite vibe, these days Hauz Khas Village is a commercial hotbed with real estate prices going up to a million US dollars for about 2000 square foot of built up space. Hauz Khas is now featured as a destination in Delhi on most travel books including Lonely Planet, Fodor's and a host of other travel guides and websites.
I am so excited to finally have a place of my own; I guess folks at home are way more excited than me to know that they will get there living and storage space back and all my junk will be out of sight.
Real estate in Delhi is expensive and when I say expensive I mean really expensive. A small artist can not just afford any kind of a commercial space as the growing economy has got up the rents to levels that an individual just can not afford. The only option for a lot of people like me are the Lal Dora areas of Delhi.
The term `Lal Dora’ was first coined in the early 1900s during the Raj. In 1908, land was consolidated by the then revenue officials and maps made. In Delhi area, there were 365 villages. On each village map, officials marked in red the area where the villagers had their homes. The area within the red line was residential and the land outside that zone was agricultural. It was from this red line that the term Lal(red in Hindi), Dora (thread in Hindi) originated.
In 1961, when the Delhi Development Authority acquired land for development, it was decided that the villages would not be disturbed. So, while agricultural land was acquired, the lal dora land remained intact. Over the years, many villages were urbanised - of the initial 365, a little over 200 remained rural - but the lal dora rules apply to both urban and rural villages.
One of the most prominent Lal Dora areas in Delhi is Hauz Khas Village. There are a lot of art galleries, restaurants, high end designers and other creative folk based there. A few independent designers came and set up shop here decades ago for its cheap rent and the quite vibe, these days Hauz Khas Village is a commercial hotbed with real estate prices going up to a million US dollars for about 2000 square foot of built up space. Hauz Khas is now featured as a destination in Delhi on most travel books including Lonely Planet, Fodor's and a host of other travel guides and websites.
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| Hauz Khas Village |
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