Uncovering myths and narratives of old cities remains an ever-alluring process. Three students of SPA Delhi have been so taken by this process that they initiated Delhi Dallying in 2011, to 'converse and engage with the city through writing, talking, walking and design interventions'. They explain,

As practicing architects and graphic designers, our work is informed by our academic learning about the city. [...] Mostly, we like telling stories about that grey bit of magic that emerges when people, places and their histories come together.  

We communicate this information in the form of walks and workshops that we put together, sometimes even sourcing information during these events. We find ourselves constantly exploring newer ways to engage with the city.

Architecture students painting a wall in the Andheri station in Mumbai (Photo: Sukhada Tatke, The Hindu, 2014)
Architecture students painting a wall in the Andheri station in Mumbai (Photo: Sukhada Tatke, The Hindu, 2014) - Early this year, the new terminal of the international airport donned the avatar of an art gallery. While these splendid works can only be enjoyed by flyers, the Mumbai Metro — which was inaugurated on Sunday by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan — has helped to bridge the gap, bringing urban art into an earthy sphere.These spectacular murals have been done not by professionals, but young students of art and architecture who put to practice what they learned behind closed doors. It all began with the Metro operators organising the “Majhi Metro” festival asking students to enter the contest. The theme, of course, was “Mumbai” and winners were given a station each to style.So at the Azad Nagar metro station, “Mad Mumbaikars” have found expression. On the walls, you find faces everywhere. At the ticket counter of the D.N. Nagar station, a beautiful silhouette of Mumbai comes to life. Various colours of the city are splashed on the walls at Ghatkopar.Andheri was the baby of Shriya Sanil, Shamika Desai and Misri Patel. The third year architecture students came together to embellish the walls with graffiti and doodles which breathe out paradoxes and quirks that make Mumbai what it is.“Here, we see a natural co-existence of people from diverse cultures from across the country. We have shown the obvious and not-so-obvious traits of the city,” said Ms. Desai.One can see various aspects of city life in the drawings: overcrowding, price rise, migration, construction sites. Yet there is a rhythm that binds everything together in this fast-paced life.

Stepping out into the city to actively engage with the people and hear their stories generates novel experiences for all people involved. These experiences were sought to be portrayed through performance, in a workshop called 'City as Theatre', held in CEPT University by Samir Parker. The workshop aimed to engage with ideas around the subversion of public space and the creation of urban myths. Says a student,

We spent many days in the old city of Ahmedabad knowing the places and exploring it. After talking with many people who were living in pols - the elders, grandparents, housewives, merchants, kids - we tried to excavate some hidden stories related to their area, their opinions on the old city, and the culture that they live in. Finally we gathered some common stories and presented it in the city, in the form of small acts and poems. 

Loving one's city creates the grounds to develop a civic sense, whereby a sense of ownership can be generated that extends up to public spaces. The present government's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is such an attempt. But exactly a year before this Abhiyan was initiated on the national level, a group of students in Ahmedabad were planning a city-wide cleanliness drive. Rushil Palavajjhala, an alumnus of the School of Architecture CEPT, and member of 'I Lead India Youth Brigade 2013', explains how architecture students from CEPT transferred their passion for painting walls into the old city. R.K. Lakshman's endearing cartoon of Gandhi leaning down to sweep the floor, was arguably popularised in Modi's Amdavad through the student-run cleanliness drive, a year before it came to be associated with the national Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

This is perhaps an exemplary case of how small scale student-driven interventions can garner larger momentum and meaning with time!