City Of Djinns: a year in Delhi

Author: William Dalrymple Illustrator: Olivia Fraser Published in the year: 1993 Publishers: Penguin Books Pages: 339 Genre: Non-Fiction, Travel

A book- part travelogue, memoir and history- which unravels and describes the archeological and cultural riches is a lasting romance of the Scottish writer with Delhi. Entertaining, fascinating and informative, city of djinns peels back the layers of Delhis centuries old history.

Newly married, Dalrymple comes to Delhi with his wife Olivia Foster and takes up a flat near Sufi village of Nizamuddin. William Dalrymple explores the seven "dead" cities of Delhi as well as the eighth city-today's Delhi. In the fascinating journey, he starts to weave out characters from domestic world such as his landlady Mrs. Puri, who likes to govern things with an iron hand, and his cab driver, Balvinder, a raw, pan-chewing Punjabi fellow, the mali (gardener), the sweeper, the cook and the eccentric Mr Puri. He touches the after effects of the Indo-Pak partition on its inhabitants, the Sikh revolt in the 80s, and tries to understand the existing situations. From contemporary history, he goes back to the Raj, and extensively covers the period which saw a rapid change in terms of architecture and living standards. From the British era, the book travels back to the luxuriant Shah Jahan period where the Mughals were at the zenith of glory and wealth. Diving deeper into Delhis history, the author gives vivid portrayals of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim, Moroccan traveller, who wrote about his journeys and Tughluk Khan, one of the most barbaric rulers of the 14th century.

Straight histories can be dry and tedious, travelogues, however, are full of flavor and life. City of Djinns, sparkling with irrepressible wit, reveals an extraordinary array of characters along the way- from descendants of great Mughals to eunuchs on the same streets of Delhi. The author also touches upon sensitive issues like, exposing the shameless face of the lazy Indian public officials; MTNL officials, Custom officers and etc.

The authors tone is not academic or preachy. There is humor going all through. He takes the reader along with him on his journey around the city. He keeps shifting back and forth in time, talking about the present-day Delhi too the cultural biases, the festivities and celebrations, the marriages, the food and several other things of life in the capital city. Being a Delhi-walla, I have never seen Delhi in such light which further rendered it in a new color for me.

Dalrymple says in the prologue, "It was so totally unlike anything I had seen before. Delhi, it seemed at first, was full of riches and horror, it was a labyrinth, a city of palaces, an open gutter...Moreover - I soon discovered - possessed a bottomless seam of stories, tales receding far beyond history, deep into the cavernous chambers of myth and legend" and so he discovers Delhi with youthful energy. A remarkable thing is that if in order to get a minute detail he has to go to Karachi, he will go and continue the flow.

However, I am doubtful about the books working as travelogue. Also, the fun it tries to produce using regular domestic activities is a bit stale. The history portion is engaging but being 19 years old which has made many things irrelevant, obstructs in it being a timeless one.

Anyways, I enjoyed the time I spent with city of Djinns and about rating it, I will rate it a

8/10.

Finally, why it is called city of djinns? Pir Sadr-ud-Din of Feroz Shah Kotla tells William, When the world was new and Allah had created mankind from clay, he also made another race, like us in all things, but fashioned from fire. The djinns are invisible to our eyes. This is a city of djinns and thats why the city keeps returning to new life. Though it had been burned by invaders time and time again, millennium after millennium, still the city was rebuilt; each time it rose like phoenix from fire. The djinns loves Delhi so much they could never bear to see it deserted Tauseef Ahmad A/2273/2010