India, May 17 -- At the junction of Grand Trunk Road and Roshanara Road-long before it was engulfed by flyovers and traffic fumes-a slender, stately clock tower anchors Delhi's expansion northward. Erected in 1941, the Ram Roop Clock Tower was born from both civic necessity and architectural ambition, becoming one of the city's earliest forays into Art Deco. Named after philanthropist and educationist Lala Ram Roop, the tower was envisioned as a beacon at the centre of a bustling industrial district. Mills flanked the area, trams clanged through Sabzi Mandi, and the crossroads cried out for order and ornament. In a 1938 letter preserved in the Delhi Archives, found during Deco in Delhi's research, Ram Roop proposed a traffic-diverting clock...