Pranav Negandhi - Indian Photographer

One of the most fascinating things about human settlements is the rapid change that they go through. And cities evidence the most obvious examples of this evolution. In two years at Pune we have witnessed the city outskirts go from sleepy suburbs to bustling centre's of activity and traffic. It is no surprise then that places deep within the heart, near the Peth's and the Camp area, should be completely unrecognisable from their earliest origins.

The only constant witnesses to this change are the mute monuments that continue to eke out an existence amongst modern urban congestion. And unlike Mumbai and Delhi, where popular monuments are given wide spaces around their periphery, structures in Pune's old quarter are enclosed upon all sides by new buildings. At times, the aggression of new development is almost tangible in the way it encroaches upon the old.

It takes many people to protect a city's heritage, greatly disproportionate to the number of people who actually appreciate it. But a city without any links to its past is always in a mad rush to keep up with the latest and greatest innovations in building technology and styles, with no care about the human connection that actually occupies the structure and breathes life into it.

I hope Pune realizes this urgent need for reform before its vast collection of history is razed down to a shadow of its past glory.