Mumbai, in spite of all the hardships you may endure while attempting to make a space for yourself in this congested and noisy metropolis, has long been celebrated for its soul, spirit and distinct identity. So has the capital of the West Bengal Kolkata, for its literary, artistic and revolutionary heritage.
Delhi on the other side, with its parochial quality, has long been derided as a sleepy city with no identity of itself or at best described by some as one that could have been pleasant, if it wasn’t for Delhites. When Sam Miller first moved to Delhi, as any self-respecting Mumbaikar (his wife is from Mumbai), he didn’t like the city. There was no clear heart to the city and he found most people to be particularly irritable, to say the least.
Delhi, however, has an extraordinary historical past and heritage with its 1,500 listed monuments that could only compare to that of cities like Rome, Athens or Istanbul. Much has been written about the city’s illustrious past, the city of Sultanates and Mughals, of Djinns and Sufis, of poets and courtesans. But Delhi is today mostly known for being one of the most dangerous cities in India, particularly unfriendly to women, where the rich live in gated residential areas, while the poor are pushed away to the edge of the city.
When Miller, a London-born journalist, long associated with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as its correspondent and managing editor for the South Asia region, came back to the city in 2002, he however found the city changed and that’s where his story starts. With the Connaught Place at the centre, Miller literally spirals through the city, threading the city streets, to explore every corner of the city he ‘loves and hates all at once’, ‘captivates and astonishes’ him.
Miller describes the city as it is, in its modernity and its contradictions, through innumerable anecdotes from the dedication of the Poorvanchalis or the migrants from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who worship the sun during Chhath Puja and cause traffic snarls on Delhi roads, while disgruntled businessmen are stuck in their cars in the merciless afternoon heat, the air of indifference in the blood donation room of a Delhi hospital, the anxiety of a tea shop owner over displacement due to Delhi’s Metro Railway, and the story of this Oudh royal family who lead lives of near-penury in a ramshackle hunting lodge called Malcha Mahal on the Delhi Ridge.
Miller wanders through Paharganj and its Israeli tourists, the office complexes around Connaught Place (now Rajiv Chowk), the deserted historical forts, a cow slaughter house in Sadar Bazaar to end its walk in Gurgaon. Miller also tries to capture the recent changes in the city. Through his encounters with Delhi's people from a professor of astrophysics to a crematorium attendant, from ragpickers to members of the Police Brass Band-Miller creates a richly entertaining portrait of what Delhi means to its residents, how the city is changing, and what it may become. The story ends in Gurgaon. ‘For better or for worse, Gurgaon is probably the future,’concludes Miller. Let’s still hope it’s not.
Author profile: Sam Miller was born in London in 1962. He studied History at Cambridge University and Politics at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, before joining the BBC's World Service. In the early 1990s, he was the World Service TV and radio correspondent in Delhi and on his return to the UK in 1993 was the presenter and editor of the BBC's current affairs programme South Asia Report. Later he became the head of the Urdu service and subsequently Managing Editor, South Asia. He has also worked as a reporter in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. He was posted back to Delhi in 2002, and has remained there ever since. He now runs media training projects in the subcontinent for the BBC World Service Trust. He also works as a TV commentator, journalist and book reviewer for a number of Indian and international media organisations.
Delhi Adventures In a Megacity is published by Penguin India (2008, Pages: 284 Price Rs 499)
A version of this was published in Businessworld issue dated 30 March 2009 on page 89
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