India, July 27 -- Every excavation in Delhi turns up the same story at a different depth. Scrape past the mound at Purana Qila and you find layer upon layer of people who came, held the ground for a dynasty or two, and left the next occupant to build straight over their floor. Nobody in this city has ever owned the ground for very long. They have leased it, for a reign, a posting, a five-year exam cycle, and then someone else has laid a fresh course of brick on top. The paying guest is that same stratigraphy, just faster and above ground. A single room, a cot, a steel almirah, a landlady who ran the house like a small republic. The guest was a tenant with no tenancy rights -- let in, watched, fed on schedule, and expected to be grateful. Th...