Is not Dalrymple one marvellous writer?

A pretty good account of colonial era delhi and plenty of OMG moments about the city which were really interesting. The best part was the description from the British point of view which was new for me.
Dalrymple has so beautifully described how every act of the Mughals, the British, the Indian politicos and the people have shaped up Delhi (Old and New) as it is now. It also pains to read the glorious past the city had once and how it was stripped off later.
A refreshing read nonetheless compared to the regular cliched high school history book accounts.

I truly enjoyed this book - I wish I had read it BEFORE we went to Delhi a few months ago, so I guess I'll just have to go back!

Excellent. High 4 stars.
Review to follow, I hope in Bengali, but if not, in English.


Short notes lest I forget:
Different Delhis - of the Mughals, the British, and the Pandavas....
Human history.

The Puris. International Backside Taxi. Balvinder Singh, Punjab Singh. Partition stories. East of Jumna massacres.

Ahmed Ali. Twilight in Delhi. Karachi.
Iris Portal. Lutyens.

William Fraser, and his brothers. David Ochterlony. James Skinner. Skinner's horse. Bungalow - beyond Kashmere Gate. Teh-khana.
Norah Nicholson.
The transvestites of Delhi.

The real hero of this book - Dr Yunus Jaffery, Persian/ Mughal historian, half-dervish, and pucca delhi-wallah.
Bernier and Manucci's Mogul/Delhi books.
Shahabuddin postman's daughter's marriage.
Mirza-namah.
Sack of Delhi in 1857. Shah Alam. Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Red fort. The story of Shahjehanabad. Dara Shukoh and Aurangzeb, and Jahanara and Roshanara Begum.
Old Delhi. Kabootar baz.
Hindu and Muslim Architecture. Shalimar Garden.
Begum Pakeezah, and the last scion of the Mughals.

Nizamuddin. Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya. Qawwali.
Elephant analogy to God.
Muhammad Bin Tughlaq. Djinns of Delhi. Daulatabad move. Ibn Battutta's travels. Jahanpanah.
Sadr ud-din djinn catcher.
Sufi. Dervish. Fekir. Ajmer. Moinuddin Chishti.
The Daulatabad Chishti monastery remains, like Nizamuddin.
Khwaja Khizr.

Mahabharata. Indraprastha. The first Delhi. Nigambodh Ghat. Sanskrit. The downpour.
Olivia Fraser's artwork.

We usually learn history in schools as a series of events, dates, places and names. Ghori, Lodhi, Tughlak and the Mughals are all presented to us minus the human elements. Books like this attempt to fill that void left by such a reading of history.

The author is still early in his career and his live for Mughal India is just beginning to show in his writings. While the author is British (Scottish), the colonial tint to viewing Sub-Continental history is 'mostly' (emphasis here) missing and what we get is an outsider's perspective into Delhi (Old and New) through the ages. The author goes backward in time and takes us on a journey though Delhi's ruins and tombs and forts while talking about the various rulers of Delhi.

Books like this help pique interest in history for the common man. New Delhi is the capital of India, but most Indians know very little about Delhi itself and its history except about the stuff they learnt in school. There is so much more to history then just the set of bullet points learnt in school. How many, for example, know about Dara Shikoh and the war for succession of the Mughal throne? How many know what impact the invasion of Nadir Shah was on the course of Indian history? This book and the style of writing here are very helpful in getting the reader interested in what is being written. I only hope more such books are available on the treasure trove that is Indian history.

Definitely worth a read. Only issue I have with this book is that the imperial lens is not totally absent.

Interesting account of the history of Delhi interwoven with the author’s modern-day experiences. Humorous and insightful.

Not as good as his other work

This was a really insightful view into life in New Delhi from a perspective I didn't really see as a tourist there.