Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity

proxyindian

I'm reading Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity by Sam Miller. He's from the UK & works for the BBC and lived in Delhi in the 1990's and hated it. Then he returned in 2002 and feels just the opposite. This book looks at the city from the point of view of walking in a concentric circle, starting in Connaught Place and going in circles around and around and around until his last journey is 40 km from Coronation Park to Gurgaon. He doesn't do these walks all in one go, obviously. We'll be in Delhi this November for 3 weeks and we're picking up on some interesting places to visit that we didn't think would be interesting but now seem otherwise.... like the Indira Gandhi house and the Gandhi museums and that park behind Birla Mandir to get our pictures taken by old fashioned photographer/collage makers.

One thing that I like about this book is that he does his planning with maps and Google Earth, but no matter how much planning he does, he still has trouble with the reality on the ground. God, how many hours have we spent planning our trips and having them be totally unrealistic when we get there! Oh, and he falls down a lot. This all seems so familiar to me.

He talks to everyone which has good and bad consequences. For example, he wanders into a street where bulls are being butchered. He stands around and watches and and tries to interview the knife welding, unfriendly butchers - a very scary and vividly told portion of the book. This part spooked me and I had to put the book down for a few days.

One thing he said that really struck me was "My size, my colour, my gait, my accent, my demeanour, my body language, my facial expressions mark me out as a foreigner. And I always will be a foreigner, however long I live here. The more Indian I wish to become, the more eccentric I appear. Because, unlike most foreigners here, I speak and read some Hindi, I appear even more unusual." I'm 6 foot five. Last year I saw a man my height or taller even.... God, I thought, he looks so bizarre. And I must too. And I do speak some Hindi.... I've been studying for 5 years but will never ever be fluent or close to fluent... but I've just been making myself stranger than normal, and that helps explain it...

Then Sam Miller says "The worst response to the negative apsects of being a foreigner is to become angry. I have learnt instead to take pleasure at others finding me amusing or incompetent." Now, that's a lesson I wish I'd learned a long time ago. (And here I have deleted a story about how I lost my temper and ruined a lovely meeting as I am still too ashamed of it but will keep his words tattooed on my wrist.)

However, this book gives me courage, because even if a guy like him who is married to an Indian and has lived there for years has trouble, then I shouldn't be so hard on myself. So, many thanks to Sam Miller and his great book "Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity."

Have any of you read this book? I would like to hear from you.

puchoo

UN fortunately no.... someone else mentioned it to me as well a while back but have not seen a copy anywhere really...

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proxyindian

I got it from Amazon. I was just searching for Delhi as a keyword and it came up. I bought it on a whim and I'm glad I did. http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Mega...1443429&sr=8-1

It's coming out in paperback this fall and I'm sure it will be cheaper... http://www.amazon.com/Delhi-Sam-Mill...1443469&sr=1-1

There are accolades from other authors on the back cover. One is by William Dalrymple. "Sam Miller has created a book that is both a quest and a love letter, and one which is pleasingly eccentric and anarchic as its subject.... It will delight Delhi lovers and baffle and amaze those who have so far remained oblivious to its erratic but oddly addictive charms."

proxyindian

The book has a website that has pictures from the book.
http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/delhi/index.html

delhiwala

Seems a beautiful read.....

I would like to read it.......

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proxyindian

I'm almost done with the book. Only two more chapters but they might never get read. That's the way I am with books... I get distracted right when it's almost finished..... Pity, because I love Sam Miller's adventures. I'm going to make it a point to bring with me to the laundromat.

One thing that sticks in my mind from the book so far is the ecological disaster that is the Yamuna. He takes a boat-and-pulley across it, and goes to stick his finger in the water. The boatman panics because he thinks Sam is going for a refreshing drink. "It will kill you," he says or something like that. The water receives so many millions of gallons of waste every day (I forget the figure), and it has the consistency of a milk shake.

That sad river. No wonder it's always ignored completely in the guide books. But I'm greatful for Sam Miller to bring it my attention.... and even though he's lit the fire to explore the Ridge, I am not going to check out the Yamuna.

capt_mahajan

Being made worse now, because catchment/drainage areas are being built on in the mad rush for real estate in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth games. Delhi had better start preparing for floods.

A hundred and twenty thousand slum dwellers have been displaced, in addition. 40,000 homes. A book on this is due shortly, I think it is called Yamuna Weeps or something like that.

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namaste_cat

Thanks for the heads-up on the book and the links as well, Proxyindian. I signed up for the alert for the paperback version. Looks like a very interesting book. It's not only in India though that an immigrant sometimes/always can feel like a foreigner/outsider.

After 25 yrs in the U.S. I'm as they say in Hindi -
"Dhobi Ka Kutta
Na Ghar Ka Na Ghat Ka".

Some of it gets lost in the translation but it means something along the lines of - "The Dhobi’s dog – doesn't belong either in the home or at the ghat.” where dhobi is a laundry person, for lack of a better phrase.

Anyway, what I mean is perhaps I can relate to Sam Miller

lovish

WOW... looks amazing... "Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity by Sam Miller"

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genesis

Very well written book. If you have lived in Delhi you will appreciate it much more...