A masterpiece from someone who can put himself in the shoes of the emperor and the commoner and still be able to describe the scene with equal punch. Telling the life of a city across the centuries from the eyes of its citizens that inhabited it while running a parallel contemporary commentary is an effective style which keeps u firmly in present and yet gives a very graphic picture of life in those turbulent times. Not a history lesson but a lesson for those who have read the history. The portrayal of the love/hate relationship between the author and bhagmati/delhi is an audacious but a genius masterstroke which is the stamp that proves the ’delhite’ credentials of the author . History is best appreciated when you live through it , and this is what exactly the book does. It lives through its characters and instead of focusing on the ’beaten path’ it concentrates on those aspects which has given the city its identity. From the sufi cult to the foreign invasions to the assassination of Gandhi to the anti-Sikh riots the narrative hops from one character to another without being abrupt. The space-time continuum it forms gives you a sense of connectivity to the past and suddenly we realize that it not that long that we were there ! ! I can recall the feelings that surges through the blood when you enter the city after appreciating the book .. You end up with a feeling of ’u belong here’ .. a city worth living for , a city worth fighting for .. sher-e-noor .. Delhi ...................Awesome read ..one which can't be taken as just another book.......
There’s not one, but an unbelievable ten plots in this epic. Basically, it’s a collection of 10 tales which start off at 1265 A.D. and come way down to 1985 A.D. covering all the major incidents that gave Delhi its present shape, its present identity. The protagonist/narrator of this book is an old reprobate who loves Delhi as much as he does the hermaphrodite (hijda) prostitute Bhagmati! The story jets off with this middle-aged man landing into Delhi after a hiatus and accommodating himself in the city. After some days of wandering, he basically takes up a job of a royal tourist guide, as he is quite well-acquainted to the city. His first account when he takes an American girl on a round trip of the city suggest that he is anything but a gentleman. Flirting and eve-teasing are his forte and he enjoys the company of women. Enter Bhagmati—a dark, scruffy hijda from Lal Kuan in whom our protagonist finds a hugely satisfying bed-partner. What follows is an endless description of their libidinous adventures in bed, which is better left in the book. The narrator, thereafter, takes Bhagmati to Jahaz Mahal, where an inscribed stone catches his eye, and thus starts the real history of Delhi.The reader is taken way back to 1265 A.D. when Delhi was ruled by Sultan Ghiasuddin Balban. The narrator here is a clerk called Musaddi Lal who takes us on his life journey (right from his child-marriage to his old years), and in the process he very masterfully sews in the influence of Hazrat Nizamuddin, the wrath of Ameer Khusraoo and the passing over of the kingdom from Balban to Khiljis. In other words, this chapter marks the building of Mughal Empire in Delhi. The next one tells us describes the advent of Taimur in Delhi, and the consolidation of Mughals. The following one stretches from the death of Jahangir to the reign of Shah Jahan to Aurangzeb’s rule from the eyes of an untouchable Sikh. What follows next is Aurangzeb’s heart-wrenching life history, taken from the author’s autobiography, followed immediately by Nadir Shah’s invasion and one year rule over Delhi. Up next is a detailed, erotic life-history of an Agra-based poet (shaayar) in whose life-time Delhi gets into the hands of Abdali, then the Marathas, then the Jats and the Sikhs, and finally to the hands of Ghulam Qadir. The city, irrespective of the ruler, only comes one step closer of being a desert—such is the havoc created by each of them. Then comes the chapter titled "1857", which marks the beginning of British’s government’s impact on Delhi and deterioration of the last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar to a prisoner, with whom, the Mughal Empire sees its last, painful days. Slowly moving into the 1900s comes the third last chapter, which tells how Delhi was being rebuilt under the British Raj. The chapter’s narrator is a builder (who played chief importance in standing buildings up) who later on turns to a dignitary. After many Viceroys, comes the second last chapter describing India’s period of Independence, Partition and Gandhiji’s Shootout. The narrator here is a refugee from Pakistan who joins a fundamentalist group in Delhi, and observes every action by the Father of The Nation and other dignitaries closely. Cut to the present narrator, the same old Sikh who had found that inscribed stone, and comes the last episode that shook Delhi—1984 riots, after Indira Gandhi was shot dead. Stretched in over 400 pages, this is what forms the outer shell of this epic called "Delhi".
There’s not one, but an unbelievable ten plots in this epic. Basically, it’s a collection of 10 tales which start off at 1265 A.D. and come way down to 1985 A.D. covering all the major incidents that gave Delhi its present shape, its present identity. The protagonist/narrator of this book is an old reprobate who loves Delhi as much as he does the hermaphrodite (hijda) prostitute Bhagmati! The story jets off with this middle-aged man landing into Delhi after a hiatus and accommodating himself in the city. After some days of wandering, he basically takes up a job of a royal tourist guide, as he is quite well-acquainted to the city. His first account when he takes an American girl on a round trip of the city suggest that he is anything but a gentleman. Flirting and eve-teasing are his forte and he enjoys the company of women. Enter Bhagmati—a dark, scruffy hijda from Lal Kuan in whom our protagonist finds a hugely satisfying bed-partner. What follows is an endless description of their libidinous adventures in bed, which is better left in the book. The narrator, thereafter, takes Bhagmati to Jahaz Mahal, where an inscribed stone catches his eye, and thus starts the real history of Delhi.The reader is taken way back to 1265 A.D. when Delhi was ruled by Sultan Ghiasuddin Balban. The narrator here is a clerk called Musaddi Lal who takes us on his life journey (right from his child-marriage to his old years), and in the process he very masterfully sews in the influence of Hazrat Nizamuddin, the wrath of Ameer Khusraoo and the passing over of the kingdom from Balban to Khiljis. In other words, this chapter marks the building of Mughal Empire in Delhi. The next one tells us describes the advent of Taimur in Delhi, and the consolidation of Mughals. The following one stretches from the death of Jahangir to the reign of Shah Jahan to Aurangzeb’s rule from the eyes of an untouchable Sikh. What follows next is Aurangzeb’s heart-wrenching life history, taken from the author’s autobiography, followed immediately by Nadir Shah’s invasion and one year rule over Delhi. Up next is a detailed, erotic life-history of an Agra-based poet (shaayar) in whose life-time Delhi gets into the hands of Abdali, then the Marathas, then the Jats and the Sikhs, and finally to the hands of Ghulam Qadir. The city, irrespective of the ruler, only comes one step closer of being a desert—such is the havoc created by each of them. Then comes the chapter titled "1857", which marks the beginning of British’s government’s impact on Delhi and deterioration of the last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar to a prisoner, with whom, the Mughal Empire sees its last, painful days. Slowly moving into the 1900s comes the third last chapter, which tells how Delhi was being rebuilt under the British Raj. The chapter’s narrator is a builder (who played chief importance in standing buildings up) who later on turns to a dignitary. After many Viceroys, comes the second last chapter describing India’s period of Independence, Partition and Gandhiji’s Shootout. The narrator here is a refugee from Pakistan who joins a fundamentalist group in Delhi, and observes every action by the Father of The Nation and other dignitaries closely. Cut to the present narrator, the same old Sikh who had found that inscribed stone, and comes the last episode that shook Delhi—1984 riots, after Indira Gandhi was shot dead. Stretched in over 400 pages, this is what forms the outer shell of this epic called "Delhi".
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