Author: Eminent Contributors
Editor(s): Khushwant Singh
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 286
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0141007710
Description
Witness to the rise and fall of several empires, Delhi has often been compared to the phoenix that rises from the ashes. Three thousand years of eventful history have made it one of the greatest capitals of the world-also an old-young city full of contradictions that inspires as much love as loathing.
This anthology brings together writings on Delhi by residents, refugees, travelers and invaders who have engaged with the city at various moments in its long history. Amir Khusrau, Ibn Battuta, Samsam-ud-Daula and Niccolao Manucci record the glories and follies of prominent kings and emperors, from Anangpal Tomar to Shah Jahan.
Timur Lane tells the story of his own bloody invasion of the city, Khushwant Singh of an untouchable in the time of Aurangzeb William Dalryample of the first intrepid Englishmen in Delhi, and Ghalib and Hodson of the war of 1857. There are also vignettes of everyday life- a Jat household in the nineteenth century; vendors and housewives in Ballimaran during the Second Word War; lovers and joggers in Lodi Garden; happy parties at the discos.
The contemporary pieces, most of them specially commissioned for the collection, constitute a bitter-sweet ode to modern Delhi. Ruskin Bond, Manjula Padmanabhan, Anees Jung, Mrinal Pande, Dhiren Bhagat and Rukmini Bhaya Nair, among others, write on subjects as diverse as Punjabi joint families, the dying cuisine of Delhi, the infuriating bureaucracy, the Sufi legacy, the Anti-Sikh riots of 1984, and benighted citizens of a capital city gone wrong.
Edited by Khushwant Singh, City Improbable is a collection as varied and lively-sometimes serious, sometimes richly humorous-as Delhi itself.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Loving And Loathing Delhi
The Building of the Hall
Anangpal Tomar
Qutbuddin Aibak
The Court of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq
Conquest of Dehli
The Building of Shahjahanabad
The Untouchables
In the time of Aurangzeb
The Early Days of the British
The Governor-General’s Visit
There Once was a Fair City
The Capture of the King
Jat Households
Unconquered Still
The Building of New Delhi
Ballimaran and the war fund, 1942
Delhi, 1947
Winter Morning
Bhabiji’s House
A world of words
Mrs Gupta Never Rang
Delhi During Emergency
Now the Tears have dried up
Delhi by Season
I never knew his name
Lodi Garden
Dilli Ka Dastarkhwan
From Delhi
Time Present and Time Past
Lodi Colony
Lovers, They are Everywhere
The Kingdom of Waste
Sujan Singh Park
Bitch
City Without Natives
In the Company of Hijras
Shajahanabad: The City that once was
Public Relief
One Long Party
City of Walls, City of Gates