India, Sept. 14 -- Even as we demand more from our cities, we must also pause to acknowledge the distance we have already travelled. For decades after Independence, India's urban spaces were an afterthought. Jawaharlal Nehru's fascination with Soviet-style centralisation gave us the likes of Shastri Bhavan and Udyog Bhavan, concrete monoliths already crumbling by the 1990s, monuments to bureaucracy rather than service. By the 2010s, central Delhi presented a dismal sight: Potholed avenues, drab and leaking government buildings, and peripheral roads in the national capital region (NCR) that were hopelessly jammed. Expressways were scarce, metros were confined to a handful of cities, and civic infrastructure was visibly decaying. A country ...