India, Sept. 28 -- The headline should have read "The disappearing havelis of Dilli dehat," but choosing this, one may declare that the villages of Delhi existed before the distinction between Old and New Delhi. These havelis hold social histories of communities that have lived and sustained the land of the city longer than the urbanised city. The haveli of Delhi dehat was organised as a sequence of spaces that moved from public to private. A visitor entered through a large wooden gate into the baithak, where guests and relatives from outside could stay and where the male members of the family slept. Beyond it lay the chowk, a central courtyard with stairs on one or both sides, a kitchen at one end with a raised platform for washing utensil...