Nothing remains...
During my vacation to the northern regions, i was kept company by this wonderful book by Khushwant Singh titled "Delhi". Why was i reading this book? Well, for one thing, i have spent 17 good years of my life in the city. And despite what anyone might tell you, Delhi is one of the better Indian cities to live in, the only other pretender to the throne of the top Indian city being Mumbai i think. Cant comment too much on Mumbai though, cuz i havent been fortunate enough to spend too much time there. Obviously, Bangalore cannot even come close to being a pretender cuz its infrastructure has gone to the dogs now. Ok will reserve my take on Indian cities for some other day. For the moment back to the book and why i was reading it. Well, Delhi has a wonderful sense of history associated with it and i had always wanted to read up on that. And this book by Khushwant Singh came well recommended too. Plus, KQA had given me 500 bucks to blow up on books so i thought "why not".And it turned out to be a really good buy. Frankly, Khushwant Singh is easily one of the most reviled authors on the critics list for the simple reason that he makes being a wily old lech his foremost raison-d'etre and that tends to take the sheen of his writing. I tend to not believe too much in Indian literary criticism cuz most of the critics tend to be a from a bunch of pretentious writers and hence i decided to make up my mind on my own as far as Mr. Singh is concerned. And to cut a long story short, Mr Singh did live upto his reputation. Some portions of the book which deal with his womanising are downright tedious and are kinda tough to swallow. But the portions of this book which deal with Delhi itself are very very insightful. They are mostly written as first person accounts of people like Taimur, Aurangzeb,Mir etc who have had a tremendous impact on the history of Delhi. And the way the story has been woven around these historical characters is quite unique and if nothing else, manages to keep the reader attentive. Its quite obvious the Khushwant Singh is in love with the city and that adds its own sense of melodrama to the story.
There was this one portion of the book that really made me laugh and cringe at the same time. At one place Mir Taqi Mir, the famous poet, is describing the city during his time period and he talks about the time after the fall of the Mughal empire when the city of Delhi was being ravaged by the Afghans. He then goes on to describe the Sikh hordes who came in from Punjab and writes about them:
"These Sikhs grow their hair and beards long and have a fierce aspect. Sometimes they let their long hair down before they fall on the Afghans and make them fly in terror. They fill the nights with their weird cries.
The Sikh armies pressed on toppling the crowns and thrones on their way. They chased Afghans right upto the Attock river. Then they returned to the Punjab, slew the Hindu governor of Lahore appointed by Abdali and became the rulers of Punjab. Now they have turned their bloodshot eyes on Delhi. What worse fate could befall a beautiful city than it become the abode of savages."
I couldnt believe this portion when i read it. Mir had actually forseen the takeover of Delhi and consequently, of entire India by the Punjus almost 2 centuries before it actually happened. Yes they have made all the humans fly in terror. They have filled the nights with their weird cries of "Ballee Balle" and "Chak De Phatte" and made even the lives of the most sane Delhites miserable. The beautiful city has been takenover by the savages, people and the alcohol drenched, bloodshot eyes of the Punjus are know looking at the whole world for complete domination/damnation.
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posted by Nitish @ 2:57 AM
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