Jaipur Literature Festival 2010

This was the fifth literature festival in the pink city Jaipur, and it was the first one that I attended. Before I decided to go, I had read about the sessions last year and ones that were planned for this year, and I was really looking forward to attend this festival. I attended the first three days of the festival out of the total five days, and here are some of my random observations:

1. Festival was extremely well organized. Even the last minute changes or disruptions due to speakers not being able to reach were brilliantly managed.

2. All sessions began more or less on time and definitely finished on time, so there was no jeopardizing of one session by the other or of more popular sessions by the not so popular ones. There was time kept for the audience interactions in each session, making it a participative festival rather than the one where you go and only listen to the speakers.

3. The festival has probably outgrown its venue Diggi palace, and would need a bigger venue next year.

4. Poetry sessions, especially by Gulzar and other Hindi poets were a total delight.

5. The musicals in the evening were hand picked and catered to all kinds of taste.

6. The festival had the right representation of the local Rajasthan literature, Hindi literature, translations, though it was primarily was for English language

7. The Audience had a large percentage of global population. This meant that all non-English sessions had to be translated all the time, but that’s how the global world going forward would be. It is also indicative of the cultural mix of the readers and authors in India and may be the world.

8. The discussions could have had more depth given the people participating in them but then there was limited time available.

9. The stalls of handicrafts, paintings, book stores, ethnic decor and book launches gave the whole festival a mela like look.

10. It was a complete democratic setup, at one point in time Vasundhara Raje Scindia was standing and attending the session and there was no pressure to vacate the seat for her. All the celebrities were floating around and mingling with the crowds.

11. Celerity quotient can be brought down probably. It adds all the glamour to the festival, but a bit at the cost of the substance.

12. If you love the written word you would enjoy being there at the festival.

I look forward to attending it again may be in 2012.

Discover Delhi XV: Old Delhi Walk IX: Through the 1857 revolution

To the north of the walled city of Shahajahanabad, lies a small trail which tells you the story of the first revolution of Indian freedom struggle. 1857 is the year that would always be remembered as a landmark year, as a beginning that had its conclusion after 90 years. So if you take Old Delhi or Kashmere gate GPO as your starting point, within a small walking distance of may be half a kilometer, you will find so many small signs of the turmoil that Delhi saw along with the important places of those times. GPO itself is an imposing white building with red borders to indicate the postal department. Interestingly through this walk we met a women at each stop who either guided us well or resisted us, but everywhere it were the women whom we met through the walk.

To begin with, there is Lothian Cemetery that was once the cemetery used by the Christians in Delhi during the first half of the 19^th century. There was a huge Celtic cross that was built in this cemetery as a memorial to the people killed in 1857 war. This cross fell a few years back and is in the process of restoration. You can still see it on the ground, lying there, massive and intricately carved as a strong symbol. Post independence till a few years back, the cemetery was used by families as a place to live. The families have been moved out about 4 years back and the place has been evacuated, but it is still in a dilapidated state. While you are standing there, you would often wonder, why it is in such a neglected state. Some graves are marked and some are not, probably the graves that belong to the war period are not marked. The carved stones or memorial stones have been removed over a period of time. Some of the graves have long epitaphs written and they make an interesting reading, though it can move you when you see the small graves of infants with their grieving parent’s names written on them. Compared to the other cemetery some distance away Nicholson Cemetery, this one is totally neglected. You would see something peculiar in this small cemetery, presence of some Mughal red sandstone structures on top of some graves. I read somewhere that these structures were built by Maj Skinner on the graves of his friends. I guess these may belong to some Muslim gentlemen. When you look around the cemetery and you notice these religious and cultural differences you almost feel that at least in death the lie together. The care taker lady from ASI told us a bit about this cemetery. When I asked her if she does not find it scary to be all day amongst the graves, she laughed and showed the small space where she cooks, eats and takes rest and once in a while when the people walk in she has a little talk with them.

Bang opposite the GPO is a small structure standing by itself, this was a part of the British Magazine, which they themselves destroyed in May 1857, lest it should fall in the hands of rebels. As you walk towards Kashmere gate from here, soon you would see the other remaining and bigger portion of this magazine. Now stand somewhere and imagine an integrated building, and then think of the amount of ammunition that it would have stored. In this second part, you can notice the architecture of this arched building. A marble plaque tells the names of the soldiers who defended this magazine from the enemies, who were none but the freedom fighters and the government of India has rightly put a board specifying this.

Somewhere in the middle of the road divider, about 100 meters from British Magazine, you would see a small grey stone pillar like structure. This is the telegraph memorial, in memory of the last message that was sent from here, which informed the army units in Ambala about the mutiny in Meerut and Delhi and which helped British revive themselves in the 1857 war. There is some inscription on this pillar which we could not read.

Again as you walk towards Kashmere gate, on your right you would see Gurru Gobind Singh Inderprasth University campus housed in an old British barrack kind of building. You can talk to the security guard and enter the building. You may be asked who are you, as not many tourists come here. You can always say you are students of history. A little distance inside the gate is Dara Shiko’s library, built by Shahajahan for his chosen heir and son Dara Shiko, who was eventually murdered by his brother Aurangzeb. This building later became the residence of first British official in Delhi David Ochterlony. Between the two of them the building changed hands with various people including Ali Mardan Khan and Marathas. Currently, it serves as the office of archeology department of Delhi Government. There is an archeological museum in this building now, showcasing terracotta excavations from late Harappa period, including the Grey Pottery that is usually associated with the Mahabharata period. Most of these have been excavated from Mandoli and Bhorgarh. Both these sites lie on the outskirts of current day Delhi. Now what makes this building different is the superimposition of British architecture on top of Mughal one. The original library was obviously completely Mughal, but the British added their trademark columns to add a verandah around the building. They also built arched pavilions at the backside basement of the building around the original pavilion. One look and you notice the difference in architectural style of the two pavilions. All this makes this building very Mughal in interiors and absolutely British in exteriors. The books of this library were lost during 1857 war, how I wish someone has preserved the books. Here a lady from the archeology department very gracefully explained us the various artifacts and their periods and also guided us towards the back of the library to see the arched pavilions which otherwise we would have missed.

Come out of the campus and walk on the Lothian road, and notice the old Havelis with various types of facades, still maintained from the 19^th century. The intricate jaali work that is on the parapets of all the houses, which are above the shops, is worth noticing. Some had mixed the styles by putting red pillars along with the Jaalis and some have just played around with the Jaali patterns. Round windows seemed to be in fashion then. There is old St Stephens College in bright red color which is now a NCC office. Interestingly the road is called Madarsa road as this building was once a Madarsa. The whole place still radiates an aura of the bygone era.

A little ahead is, what I think is the most beautiful church in Delhi: St James Church. It is housed in a huge campus in yellow and white color, surrounded by huge gardens, well maintained, almost like an island of peace in the midst of all the chaos. You may be a bit confused on where to enter it from. You can use the main gate or the back gate through the church bookstore. If it is not a Sunday, you may find the church almost deserted, which I find a very welcome sign at times. It is a triangular structure with three doors leading you inside the church. Here and there on the outer walls you would see the small stones embedded in the walls of the church, indicating the donations made for the maintenance of the church, and you would see a lot of non-Christians who have contributed for this building. There is a small red colored structure in back corner of the book which is the publication house associated with the church and you can buy books from here. You are not allowed to take photographs inside the church and that is a pity as it is beautiful out there. There are two huge stained glass paintings, adding vibrancy to the otherwise not so colorful interiors. There is James Skinner’s grave right at the altar, who built this church in early 19^th century. You can read here about his life, his Scottish father and Rajput mother and how he raised cavalry regiment called Skinner’s horse. The whole atmosphere inside the church was engrossing and you could just soak yourself in that. One of the plaques there said that the church has been recently restored by INTACH, and you have to appreciate the work done to keep the church in such a pristine state. This church was also destroyed substantially in 1857 and was restored later. To the north of the church are the graves of the Skinner family and some martyrs of 1857 war. It also has the grave of William Fraser whose Bungalow is just around the corner. The beautiful sculpted pieces on these graves make the whole piece of land look beautiful. Interestingly you will find epitaphs written in Urdu on some of the Skinner family graves. These pieces are fiercely guarded with heavy fencing and the lady in charge of the church would keep a keen eye on you while you look at the church. Here the lady in question was not very friendly and she kept insisting on buying the books and wanted us to leave our bags and cameras outside, so we had to take turns and see the church.

Come out of the St James Church and down the road is a beautiful white dome shining at the end of a street. Your immediate impulse is to run to it and see what is it, but you might also notice the European style market place as you step out of the church. This beautiful building was William Fraser’s Bungalow, and is now the office of Northern railway. You are not allowed inside the building and photography is a strict no-no, you are not even allowed to photograph the board that tells the history of the building. Built in 1803, this was originally the tehkhana (dungeon) of Ali Mardan, a Mughal viceroy of Punjab. Interestingly the domes built on top of this building are very Rajputana in character, and it seems that the architecture of the time either had influences of surrounding areas or the people involved in the building brought in their influences. Nevertheless, it is an enchanting building. Unfortunately, you can only see it from a distance.

Move a little ahead towards Kashmere gate and you will see another imposing white colored building which is obviously very British in nature. We had no clue, but something about that building attracted us and we stepped in to discover that it was the office of Urdu and Sindhi academy. Once upon a time this was the office of Chief Police officer, and hence the building is called CPO building. It is a heritage building, maintained close to its original style, but not many people seem to have noticed it. As told to us by an Urdu academy official that they try to underplay the heritage nature of this building, otherwise the culture ministry may take it over. Wonder if they can keep such a huge building under wraps. Behind this CPO building is a city court and you can see the advocates and their associates sitting out on their chairs and tables with their typewriters. There is another security forces building and behind that is an execution well. Remember the road behind, which is the ring road today, used to be the course of Yamuna in last century. Now when people used to get death sentence, they used to executed in this well and from here their bodies used to flow into the Yamuna River. It is more like a garbage dump today, but when you hear the locals tell the execution stories, it still gives you Goosebumps. A lady working there actually pointed this well to us and told us to go and see it, and an armed forces person explained how it worked.

Kashmiri gate is one of the many gates that lead to the walled city of Shahajahanabad. This is the only gate with two arched gateways and was made so by the British. One gateway was for entry and the other for the exit. This northern gate was so named because the kings used to go through this gate to Kashmir during the summer months. Delhi summers it seems were ever so dreadful. This gate is historically important as this was the point at which the fiercest battle was fought between freedom fighters and the British before the British regained the control over Delhi in September 1857. The signs of destruction are still visible on the gate. Later when the British established Civil Lines as their residential area, the area around Kashmiri Gate became a busy marketplace. You can see the round markets with thin iron pillars and going around Corridors, not very different from CP market design. There is erstwhile famous Ritz cinema hall, which I was told is no longer operational, evoking nostalgia for the single screen theatres and the landmarks that they used to be. The latest landmark in the area is of course the new swanky Metro station, which has definitely made some space on the roads beneath it. A road from Kashmiri gate towards Chandni Chowk would lead you to Burra Baazar, which is again a very European imprint. Here you would find lot of eating joints and other everyday shops. We were told that Mithan Halwai is the best to eat at, but when we reached the place, there were 3-4 Mithan Halwai shops in a row, along with a hardware shop of the same name. There was no way to find out which one was the original. We assumed that all of them must be original, getting divided over the generations and stepped inside one of them for our lunch. The Bedmi aaloo puri is something that they specialize in apart from Rabri and Jalebi. There were these huge Kadhai’s filled with milk kept on fire to let it condense. The Puri was very tasty and different as though it was fried, it was almost dry.

In one of the bylanes of Burra Baazar is the Madrasa Aminia Islamia Arabia, which was originally started in Sunehari Masjid in Chandni Chowk and was later shifted here. Made of Lakhori bricks the mosque adjoining this Madrasa was built by the Nawab of Panipat. There are rooms here which I think are the hostels as I could see lot of young boys there, or may be it was a Sarai at some point in time.

While walking around this area, stop by to look at interesting signs like the one we spotted advertised a Pehalwan. There are old bookshops like Atma Ram and sons, that are stuffed with books old styles and you have to make your way in the shop by jumping and hoping on smaller piles of books. Gosh, how I love to roam around in these shops. Then there may be people making snacks on the roadside in a makeshift kitchen. If the surroundings do not bother you, try and taste the fresh snacks right out of the frying pan and it may make you ask for more. You can also look at the top of buildings, where you would see kids flying kites. You may also spot some people playing with their tamed pigeons. Some of them would be training and feeding them. Some day I want to go to some of these people and see the trained pigeons.

A short walk that takes you through a long era.

Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

This is the second book by William Dalrymple that I read and while I was attending Jaipur Literature festival, I also happened to briefly meet the author. Being recently launched, there was lot of buzz around this book and almost all leading periodicals who publish book reviews had written about this book. The subtitle of the book says that ‘In Search of Sacred in Modern Indian, it is actually Indian subcontinent that he has covered.

There are nine stories of nine different people, following a path of spirituality in their very own way, with an immense faith in their path. Some of them are carrying the tradition of their families or communities for generations together. Given the huge change that Indian psyche is undergoing, some of these traditions are at their terminal end and may become history with the last generation practicing them. Some of the stories cover unusual faiths followed by closed communities, most of these are known but not many people have tried to break into the communities and have a detailed look at them. Some of them are well known faiths, and the author looks at the personal journey of people who chose to tread the path of this faith.

Overall the stories are about faith, something that was either in born or came from within during some phase of life. For all these people faith drove their lives and regardless of where their faith led them, they never let go of their faith. There are times when it seems they have gone against what they are expected to do, but eventually all the pieces fit in and you see the underlying faith. If you have been born and brought up in India, you may know about few stories at least, but if you are a western all these stories would intrigue you and may seem like something out of the world as these things are not very common for the western world.

Narratives are simple, and as the author says he has kept himself at the minimal while telling the story. What he has essentially done is gathered the story first hand from the practitioner, understood his or her faith and its psychology, a personal history of how they were led to this path and what keeps them going. He then adds the history and cultural & social relevance around the story to put the story in context for the readers. Each story is independent and comes from a different part of the Indian subcontinent. I loved the Lal Pari story which explained the popular Sindhi Qawaali for me, after I have heard it thousands of times.

An easy read that takes you through the not so ordinary journeys of some ordinary and not so known people. If you think a bit, they may make you look at your own faith and see how it impacts and drives your life. It is a kind of travel writing where the author goes beyond the surface, scratches the surface and shows you what he sees beneath the obvious.

Read it for the interesting stories that are there somewhere around you but might have missed meeting your eye.

Unexplored Karnataka : Keladi & Ikkeri

Keladi and Ikkeri fall in north Karnataka in an area known as Malnad, for the heavy rainfall that this region gets. The rain is so important for this region that whenever people of this region talk to each other, first thing that they always ask about is 'Rains', and then go on to discuss and describe it in detail. After that only they talk about anything else. Technically, both these places fall in Shimoga district of Karnataka and are about 70-80 kms from Shimoga. The closest town to these places is Sagar. Both Keladi and Ikkeri are more or less small villages today, and like most places in India, you have to put your imagination together to visualize the time when these were the places from where the kings ruled large areas for centuries together.

Keladi was a small region within the Vijaynagar Empire and was headed by a chieftain. Around 1500 AD, it became an independent kingdom and continued to be so till it fell to Hyder Ali in mid 18th century. The lineage of Keladi had two powerful queens, who provided the able leadership to the dynasty. Keladi was the birthplace of this dynasty though it remained its kingdom only for about 14 years or so, after which it was shifted to Ikkeri, just a few kilometers away, which remained their capital for more than a century. The capital was subsequently shifted to Bidanur and Koule Durga.

There is a Rameswaram temple that marks the existence of the bygone empire and the chieftains. It was build around 1500 AD by Chavadappa Nayak, in green grey stone in Hoysala Dravidian style. The temple is in a fairly large complex with garden on both sides of the entrance. In fact from the entrance it looks more like a large house rather than a temple and it is only after you enter the premises that the temple comes in your view. As you take the steps towards the entrance of the temple you would notice the pavilions on both sides of the stairs. What is peculiar about these pavilions is the strong wooden pillars that provide the support. The main temple is also predominantly wooden. The ceiling of the temple is made of wooden panels, on which numerous lotus flowers are carved. No two lotus flowers are same, each is slightly different from others, and you would wonder at the creativity of the carvers who could think of the so many ways to depict the same flower. If you look closely enough you would see that there are 4 or 5 parts of the lotuses carved and each part has 4-5 patterns, and using the various permutations of these the artisans have created the non repeating lotus patterns. The pillars are again wooden, made with a single piece of wood and with a very dark brown tone. The bells on the walls are also carved out of the wooden panels and then put on the wall. One panel between the wall and the ceiling is carved out to depict the various deities and rituals of those days. Being a Shaivite temple, most of the deities are from his family or sect. Then there is a depiction of Navagarha on a ceiling panel, clearly depicting the each graha that the Hindus worship. There are geometric patterns as well on some panels of the ceilings, indicating an Islamic influence as this is not typical of Hindu sculpture. The ASI board providing information is in such bad combination of colors and placed in such a way that it is impossible to read it. Perfect example of how it should not be done. We could not read it standing right in front of it in broad daylight and I am unable to read the picture that I took of it.


Step out, the dhwajastambha or the pillar at the entrance of the temple has carving on all four sides. Interestingly, one of the carvings depicts women wearing a very north Indian kind of dresses. This could either mean cross culture weddings or potential travelers who visited this area. Some literature says that is the image of Rani Chenamma, who ruled Keladi for some time. There are few stone panels in the temple complex that depict a lot of female warriors fighting from horse tops and fighting fiercely. These panels are also called veergals, meaning in the glory of the brave. You can go around the temple and see a lot of excavated carved stones, most of which depict the Shivalinga, Ganesha or the Nagas. There are a few depicting the war scenes and some the dancing scenes. A long stone depicts Ashtadurga along with Ganesha.


Walk a little distance from the temple and there is a government museum that depicts both the excavations from around the area and various artifacts that must have been used by the people of this area. There is a predominant use of wood for making everything, and the bigger the piece of wood used, the better the article. This probably would be due to abundant availability of wood in this rain rich area. There are few textiles and brass items displayed, but most probably they came to this area from elsewhere either as gifts or as collectibles. As of now the museum is under renovation and is expected to be up and running very soon.


In an enclosure, there is a huge Rath, which is again completely made of wood and extensively carved all around. This would have been used to take the temple idols around the town for festivals and on certain occasions. Ganesha, Shiva and their vehicles dominate the carvings. If you only look at the carvings, you would wonder if they are in stone or in wood. The huge wheels make you think how majestic it would look while moving around, but then it has to be imagined. Rath is an integral part of most important south Indian temples, some of them have them even carved in stone like the one in Hampi. If you are there, notice the single head and double body elephants carved on all corners of the rath, giving you a glimpse of the imagination of the artisans and also indicative of the period that these works belong to. Usually ideas happen at the same time, as if they are born in the air and are available to anyone who can catch them, and more often than not, there are multiple people who catch the same idea at more or less the same time. Some may get the credit, but the development of ideas depends on multiple people. You would see this mingling of images with fewer legs or bodies in many temple sculptures around the country in the temples from the early medieval era.


Ikkeri is about 10 kms from Keladi and was the Keladi capital for more than a century. Today it has a fort which is more or less inaccessible. Aghoreshwara temple built during those times is what remains to tell you about those times of the Keladi Empire. It is again a Shiva temple, with a beautiful Nandi bull outside. The kids in the temple would ask you to count the numerous chains carved on the Nandi bull, and when you would be lost in counting, they would tell you that it is just one chain that goes around the body of the bull with a naughty smile. The temple is built in a typical dravidian style, is huge and makes an impression even when seen from a distance. The arches of the Nandi’s pavilion though are done in typical Indo-Islamic style indicating the influence of contemporary architecture in the country in 16th century. There are figures carved all around the temple, on temple walls, on the ceilings and on pillars that support the temple. There are figures of Hindi deities, common people at that time, dancing girls, imaginary animals which are usually hybrids of various human and animal forms, dwarpals and erotica.

There is an interesting play of colors in the temple as it exists today. What I am not sure about is if this was always like this or the temple was of Red or Green or brown beige color and the heavy rains in this region have played their part. There are sculptors that carry a distinct deep red color, beneath them a panel has a dark green color and then the usual brown beige. On the first look you are tempted to think that it is red or green stone, but when you go closer you realize that the single stone probably can not have all the three colors. Probably the stones were colored and I again have to bank on my wild imagination to think what color it would have been conceived by the original makers of this temple. I am also intrigued by the technique that would have been used to color the stones, as the color still stands bright and alive even after centuries of heavy rainfall on it. Sometimes the images give an impression of being cast in metal and its only when you touch them that you know that they are stone. The carvings are intricate, the curves proportionate and the expressions delicate.


There is an interesting myth engraved in this temple. On the left hand side outer wall, there is a Scorpio and two lizards engraved. Between the two lizards is a line dividing them. It is said that when the lizards cross this line are able to touch each other, the world would come to an end. Though cast on stone, I must say that the lizards are not too far apart. This may or may not have been a part of the original temple as it does not gel with the rest of the fine sculpture and is very raw as if carved by a novice.


While you are there you can go to Vardhamula, which is couple of kms from Ikkeri temple is supposed to be the origin of Vardha River which encircles the Sagar town. Again, it may have been the source at some point in time, but as of now it is a step well / tank with a Shiva temple on one side. People use the tank to wash clothes, but on a cool day you can sit there and enjoy the serene surroundings.

This area is more or less not explored by travelers, though it is very close to the famous Jog falls which gets its fair share of tourists. You can visit all these areas as a day trip from Shimoga which is well connected with Bangalore.

Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali

Ahmed Ali was a Delhi based author poet and diplomat. Born in the first decade of 20th century, he was witness to the changes that took place in Delhi and undivided India as the freedom struggle was taking shape. He must have been a poet as the language of his book indicates, falling into a sought of romanticism every now and then.

The book is a story of Mir Nihal's family based in Old Delhi or Shahajahanabad. It talks about the last 20 or so years of his life and his family, which is a large extended family along with friends and neighbors. There is elaborate description of the times in Delhi in the first two decades of the century. Again the contemporaries may not have felt anything special in the book, as it was a mere description of the day to day life of those days, but today it gives us the glimpse of a life in those days. We tend to look at those days as something majestic when everyone lead a luxurious life and all they did for living was to enjoy life, while like every other time in the history of human kind, there were hardships and prejudices that people faced every day. Author paints a very balanced picture of the joys and sorrows of the people of Delhi. He takes a slice of people from various walks of life, of all age groups and genders and talks about what they looked forward to and what they detested. What is very distinctive about the book is its poetic language, which is something that is very obviously missing in the contemporary writing.

There is an elaborate description of kites as they danced in the sky. There is depiction of the protagonist's relationship with his pigeons. How he nurtures them, plays with them every day, mourns their death and how he looks at them longingly in the sky. There is also an emotive description of his relationship with his mistress and his dejection after her death. There is an explanation of the whole phenomenon of men having mistresses and spending their evenings with them. The wife was the one who came to your family and helped you carry your family line. She has to carry husband's family line and behave like a good woman, remain in purdah and spend her life with other women in the family zenana, an area marked for women. Their life revolved around taking care of the house and bringing up children and are often ignored by their husbands and compensated by gifts of fine clothes and jewellary. Mistress on the other hand provided the much needed companionship to men, including intellectual stimulation as these were well trained if not well read women. They knew various arts and crafts, and the most important being the art of entertaining men, through their singing dancing and poetry. Most of them were poetess themselves or at least they had good knowledge of the poetry and could recite them well. They were not just prostitutes merely offering the physical pleasures. Come to think of it, today people are looking for a combination of a wife and mistress in their partners, I am not sure if these contradicting requirements can be met in a single person or not. Plight of women which seems very pitiable today but was probably an accepted norm during those days is also described very sensitively. Surprisingly there is no mention of polygamy in any of the families at that point in time.

There is lengthy description of all the traditions and rituals that are followed by a muslim family both on daily basis and also on occasions like marriages, deaths, child births and religious festivals. Every detail of every ritual is described. You can literally visualize things as they are happening in the story and the language of the book helps in this. There is the world of Hakims and Fakirs who punctuate the lives of ordinary people now and then.

There is a dreaded description of the Delhi heat, how everything changed including the tempers of the people in Delhi. How it impacted the pigeons, daily routines, eating habits and moods. This may not have changed since then. Delhi is almost like a dead city during its summer months. When it is summer you often wonder what is it that still keeps this city going? Description of heat comes so often in the book that you realize the terror that it must have caused even in those days and how uncomfortable it made the citizens of Delhi. Surprisingly he also talks about the filth that existed in the streets of Delhi, so this is not really something new that we see today.

Then there is an underlying love the people of Delhi have for their city, a city built by their forefathers and the culture that they are proud of and which flourishes within the walls of this city. They are proud of their language and the influence of other languages, specially the English worried them. As and when Delhi falls to British, they attribute various factors to it, some being superstitious like building Mohammad Shah's grave between the grave of Hazrat Nizamuddin and Amir Khusro, who they said was put in between the lover and his beloved.

The writer was made to stay in Pakistan as he happened to be there at the time of partition and was not allowed to come back to Delhi. He obviously longed to be here and live again in his favorite city, but am not sure how much will he feel the connection with it now, now that culture would have undergone changes making the Delhi almost unrecognizable for people of his generation.

A very interesting reading if the life and times of Shahajahanabad intrigue you.

Discover Delhi XIV: Old Delhi Walk VIII: Through the aromas of Khari Baoli

This walk would be a chef’s delight and any food lover’s dream walk, as it takes you through the biggest spice market in Asia or may be the world. Along with this we go through a famous mosque which is a landmark in the old Delhi area, some old gates, Ghalib’s Haveli and my chance discovery of some signs of freedom movement and some very old temples in the narrow lanes.

Mirza Ghalib’s haveli is where the most famous poet of Delhi spent his last few years. It is located in a narrow Gali called Gali Qasim Jan in Ballimaran, You may have heard this name in Gulzar’s poetry and in his songs like ‘Kajrare’. This is where Ghalib lived and wrote about Delhi and its people. A part of this haveli had been recently acquired by Delhi Government and converted into the museum for the poet. Funnily the road leading to Gali Qasim Jan, where this haveli is located is full of Shoe makers and you have rows of shoes of all kinds and shapes looking at you as you walk through Ballimaran. It is a minimalist museum with synopsis of ghalib’s life and choronology of events as they happened in his life. Some of his famous poems, a life size model of him with his pen and a replica of utensils that he might have used. There is a showcase with his books, I wish they had a facility to buy his books in popular languages. There is a chart showing his contemporary poets and important men. There is a one portrait of his which is usually seen in anything that refers to Ghalib. This is a place where the poet lived for about 9 years of life, I wonder where all did he live the rest of his life in Delhi. It looks like that he was always well patronized by noblemen but somehow he always lived and eventually died in debt. The tomb of Ghalib is in NIzammudin, outside the dargah of Hazrat Nizammudin. The same is also being re-furbished these days and should have the grandeur that the poet deserves in next few months. As you come back to Chandni Chowk from Ballimaran, you would see a huge white colored Haveli, this is said to have belonged to Chuna Mal. It is said that the Haveli was always brightly lit and Ghalib had written about the same enviously.

Fatehpuri Masjid, a mosque built by and for a begum of Shahajahan, marks the end of Chandni Chowk the lane that connects Red fort and this Masjid. It is said that the road was actually a canal with fountains through the road and there were gardens around the canal and fountains. So on a moonlit night, it would almost seem as if the sky and come down on earth. I assume the name must have come from the illumination that the moonlight created here. Today, of course this is nothing but a piece of nostalgia for history lovers and a commercial hub for people who earn their livelihood from here. Fatehpuri masjid is also one of the landmarks that survived the various attacks that Shahajahanbad has suffered in the hands of various invaders and fighting princes. It is also a big mosque though it appears small from outside, with a unusual shaped water tank. The ASI board informs that this tank was shifted into this Mosque from a Nawab’s house. It also says that the mosque was privately held till British made it public in late 19^th century. This is the second pink colored mosque that I saw in Chandni Chowk. The other one being the Shahi Bagh Masjid besides the Town hall. It is a relatively simple mosque in the traditional Mughal colors of Red and white and with red sandstone and white marble. There are rooms on the ground and first floor around the masjid, which I assume may have been used as a sarai for visiting population of the area. One gate of the mosque opens into Chandni Chowk and the other into Khari Baoli, and the mosque authorities have put a board to prohibit people to use it as a thoroughfare to avoid the crowded roads outside.

If you take the road towards the right of Fatehpuri masjid, you are in Khari Baoli, the biggest spice market, and you would see all kinds of spices, nuts and herbs on display here. It is said that any spice available on the planet can be found here. The name of the street indicates that there must have been a step well here and its water would have been salted. Some sources say that there was a step well and it was used for washing the cattle, but today there is no trace of any step well here. As you walk the street, you would see spices displayed outside the numerous small and big shops. Interestingly the shops are known by their number rather than their names or the owner’s name. Though the traders prefer to deal with the wholesale buyers, but they do entertain the retail buyers too. You can buy all kinds of pickles and chutneys here along with dry spices. It’s a delight for any cook to be in this street.

Few meters down the lane on the left hand side is a metal gate that would lead you to Gadodia market, which is the hub of this market. It may take you sometime to enter the market as there is a constant flow of manually pulled loaded carts porting the sacks of spice too and fro. The speed of these carts is fast enough to scare you and keep away. The narrow gateway opens into a huge market where you see sacks and sacks of colorful spices. The red chilly and turmeric provide the brightness to the market. It seems like this place must have been a huge haveli belonging to some rich family. The parts of the haveli have been sold to merchants and the whole haveli with all its 4 floors has been converted into a storehouse or godown for the spices. For a small fee, a person took us to the top of the Haveli. After taking the 120 steep steps, we were exhausted but the view from the top was worth it. The huge roof of the Haveli had the traditional domed canopies on all sides. The place seemed perfect for a kite flying competition, and we did see a few kites lying here and there. It looked like a perfect place for film shootings, to depict a bygone era. From here you could see a world outside and inside the haveli. Outside, you see all the landmarks like red fort, jama masjid, fatehpuri masjid and the streets around. Inside you see the rows of spices and the stream of people walking by, standing, checking out the spices, negotiating, loading, unloading and just lost in their everyday business. Huge central open space of the haveli, has also been covered by building shops and creating a complete market inside. The Haveli must have been very beautiful at some point in time, but even now it eludes certain grace that you can feel when you look at the somewhat preserved corners of it. You may want to cover your nose when you are here, otherwise you are bound to come out sneezing and the locals would look at you and smile.

Chance discovery of this walk was Dhumimal’s Shivalaya , a old Shiva temple in Katra Nal , a by lane of Chandni Chowk. This was built by Dhumimal Khatri in 1850 according to the MCD board. This is a small temple which you have to request the shopkeepers outside to open it for you. Close by is a similar Kali temple with marble exteriors and two lions guarding the gates, which was closed when we were there. Another board tells that at this place in 1942, during Quit India movement, lot of protesters were killed and injured. This board now serves as a temporary wall of a shop. There is an arched gate that leads to this lane. Within one of the gates of this gateway, was a Aaloo tikki shop, another example of the small format retail.

Across the road, look at the Allahabad bank building, which is also a heritage building and tells you about the architectural tastes of those days. This is a small walk, but has a lot of points where you can stop by and spend some time. So, go and enjoy this appetite inducing walk...

Sepia Leaves by Amandeep Sandhu

It is a challenging task to review a book, when you know it is autobiographical and deals with the story of the storyteller. This is a bold attempt by Amandeep to bare his soul to the world, a rare feat. It is not easy to talk about your not so normal childhood, family and all that comes with it. It is not easy to talk about one’s own parents and extended family. It is not easy to share your emotions as an observer. It is an immensely intense personal memoir, almost cathartic, a therapeutic need of the author to say the story. So kudos to the author for doing that…

The story takes you through the journey of author from the times he was a small child and since the time he can remember things to the time when he looses his father who in a way is his hero and the real protagonist of the story. He talks about his schizophrenic mother and how he and his father dealt with her and the situations that arose out of her erratic and unpredictable behavior. How their life revolved around her moods and antics, how some day the sun would suddenly shine on them and while the other days they would just be waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually it is a story of a child’s persistent hope that one day he and his parents would happily live as a family and share their joys and sorrows like other families. He does manage to do that, may be not to the extent he wanted to, but they do end up living as a family.

His father’s character is something you would empathize with while you admire him for his commitment for a woman he married, for a child that be brought to this earth and what he considers a family. His willingness to give up his career, his acceptance of bad behavior of his wife in public and humiliation at the hands of her family is something not many men can do. He is not even proud or boastful of what he does. He accepts whatever life has given him and considers it as his Sanjog (Fate / destiny), and works towards doing whatever best he can do. Eventually he finds some solace in pursuing some of his interests like listening to ghazals.

I would have wanted more details of the story. It seems the author discovered the reason for his mother’s condition and his father’s amazing commitment, but he knowingly or unknowingly did not share it. There are a lot of situations where the scene suddenly changes and how it changed is not explained. Like when they did go out as a family, how did they talk it out to his mother and what motivated her to go. What is the emotion that kept the child bound to his parents even when he lived away from them in a hostel? Why did he yearn to come back to his home in Rourkela. I would have wanted him to talk more specifics of the city and how the new city also made him distant from his extended family and how the neighbors and father’s colleagues made a difference to his life or acted as the extended family. Though he does mention one of his aaya and a newspaperwallah who meant and lot to him, provided care when no one else did and who become a part of life and his mental family.

The events in the history have been used to depict the time line, but sometimes the author gets frayed away by these events, which otherwise have no relevance to the story. Editing of the books leaves a lot to be desired. There are sentences which are dropped midway, there are popular poems that have been quoted wrongly, the language gets mixed up here and there and so does the chronology. The chapters in Italics are initially used for the present, but suddenly somewhere in between they mingle with the past. The book definitely deserved a better editing.

The mood of the book is Melancholy. Read it to get an insight into how a child relates to his parents and what they mean to him, no matter what the world thinks of them. It is good read for parents who let their children live away from them, while they may be thinking of acting in the best interest of the child, but they probably do not realize that more than anything else the child needs them. A child will never resent a parent for not giving them the best of things in this world, but a child would always resent a parent for keeping him away from them for whatever reason.

An insightful read…

The Many Conditions of Love by Farahad Zama

Contemporary Indian writers, who are ‘well educated’, have global exposure and a reasonable command over the language are emerging as one breed of writers or rather I should say professional writers. They know what ingredients to put in their writing to appeal to their readers. They usually keep their writing very light, very simple and something that most people can relate to even when the base setting may be different. The intensity is missing probably because that is how today’s lifestyle is for this stratum of society. The observations are usually good and diverse indicating a keen mind.

There are 3-4 parallel stories in the novel, with equal number of loosely held protagonists. There is a Muslim revolutionary straight out of an Amol Palekar film who falls in love with a Hindu journalist, after working on a protest together. There is a recently married girl who has come from a poor family into a rich one and hence faces humiliation from other women in her new family, looks straight out of Ekta Kapoor serials. There is a young widow who wants to live life fully and comes from a village to a city to work in a call centre, somewhere showing the change that women in this country are going through by working towards gaining and maintaining their independence. There is an old farmer in a remote village, who has a tough life, that is dependent on rains year after year. Then there are few characters in the supporting caste.

There is no story per se in the book, it is more like a diary of these 3-4 people as the life happens to them over a period of time. It starts at a point in time and it ends at another, with no defining events opening or closing the story. In fact there are no big twists and turns. The characters are ordinary and have no peculiarities that make them interesting or stand out in the narration.

It looks like the author has picked up unrelated people and stories and tried to loosely hold them together and create a story. I could not gather if there is a message in the book, is there something that the story is trying to say, an issue that is being highlighted, a thought that author wants to share or an emotion that must be expressed. It is just a documentation of lives of a few people as it happens on an everyday basis. The agonies that you go through everyday, the rituals that you do mechanically, the cautions that you take while dealing with people around you, and all the things that make our day to day life is what is there in all the 300 pages of this book. It is about people you meet every day at the corner of your street, at your office and chit chat that you share with them.

There are many issues that are touched but never delved into. There is the farmer unrest, there is treatment of widows in society and then there is a cross faith love story. All the issues are sensitive and can be dealt with intensity and depth, but author takes them more as a matter of fact. It is more like a slice of a larger story.

Novel is based in Vizag, a city that is not too big and not too small. It is a coastal town on the east coast of India, with a laid back pace and it is a good documentation of the place. We need more stories based in towns and cities that are not so well known, that capture the social and cultural aspects of these places and also become the chronicle of their times. Probably when someone reads this book a few decades down the line, this will give them a picture of how people in and around Vizag lived at the turn of the century. As a contemporary reader I could not find much in the book.

After reading the book I found out that it is a sequel of his earlier book “Marriage bureau for the rich people”. Looks like, this sequel has few more sequels lined up as the story abruptly ends. If the author plans to write a series, I think he can pick up one story or one issue to focus on in every book, so that someone who reads just one book also gets something concrete to read.

A quick and easy Sunday afternoon read.

My Interview at Webneetech

My first interview as a blogger at Webneetech

Not a bad way to begin the new year...

Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers

A few years back I had written about Jim Rogers and Paige parker, when I discovered their website and read about their around the world travel which lasted for 3 years. Last month I saw the book ‘Adventure Capitalist’ by Jim Rogers talking about the same journey and very obviously picked it and read it as soon as I could. For someone who dreams of such travels, this was someone else living my dream and then talking about it. Imagine, you and your partner, a specially designed cozy car and roads across the world, is it not the ultimate dream.

Jim and Paige along with their anonymous team of videographer and web designer traveled 152,000 miles in three years covering 116 countries across the world, setting a world record. It takes a great deal of courage, conviction, resilience, patience and probably a bit of madness to take up this kind of a challenge. People start feeling homesick after a few days of journey and when they are thrown out of their comfort zone. To throw yourself in the middle of total chaos, to fight for visas on every border, to find a place to sleep and to locate your next meal, even when you have the resources to pay for everything, is no mean feat. The adventure is something that would keep inspiring whole lot of aspiring travelers like me.

The book with its 340 or so pages is too small to capture an experience that is so vast. So you do follow the couple’s journey as it happened chronologically, but you miss out on the details for most places. Author talks a lot of border crossings, the problems or the surprises that they had while crossing with their car. He also talks about the stock exchanges in all major countries, and how easy or difficult it is for a foreign investor to invest there. As they spend most of the time on the road, they do talk about the quality of the roads and have their own list of best and worst roads across the world. He also makes the book personal by talking about his marriage, his father’s illness and his death during the trip. He almost ends the book by talking about his visit to his father’s grave.

In the last chapter which should have been his reflections on the trip after coming back, he actually takes it as an opportunity to thrash America and how it is making enemies and alienating itself from the world. He also takes all possible digs at Alan Greenspan, who he hold responsible for fraudulent reporting by US government and responsible for inflated economy numbers. I am not an expert to say how good or bad his observations are, but I found them irrelevant in a book that should have been about his travel adventure and about his insights into investing in various economies around the world.

Considering that they traveled 150 miles a day on average, they had not more than 2-3 days per country that they traveled, so their connect per country per day is not really enough for them to be able to make any inferences or decisions on the country overall. Jim stops by to give investment advise on all these countries, and giving an impression that the decision is solely based on the 2-3 days spent in the country which seems unlikely. He and his wife also got married while on the trip so the trip also served as their extended honeymoon, no wonder they stop at certain places and find them romantic. I found his investment advises too shallow, as they lacked all rationale and the logic given was too high level. He only talks about balance of trade, demographics and the free trade as the only parameters to consider while trying to invest in an economy. I am sure there is far more to an economy and to investor’s decisions than this simplistic view.

Author makes some common observations like:

1. You can learn more about the country by talking to the madam at the brothel or a black marketer than by talking to a public servant or a government minister

2. Bureaucracy is a problem in every country and public in every country thinks they have the worst bureaucrats. ( Based on my conversation with people of at least 20 nationalities, I agree here)

3. Successful investing means getting in early, when things are cheap, when everything is depressed and when everyone is demoralized.

4. Everyone blames the foreigners when economy goes south. Always.

5. Immigrant always has to run a bit faster, which increases productivity.

For any travel enthusiast, this is definitely an inspiring book, but as a book I would rate it as average. The author had so much to share, but in the process of putting a bit of everything, he missed out on the depth on all aspects. He could have either written a book on each aspect or divided the book into various segments like travel, investment and personal story. Somewhere you just seem to be running along with the author, without stopping by to admire the beauty spread around, the insights lying here and there to be uncovered, the thrill of fighting against odds, the way to get out of the tricky situations, the dilemmas faced and resolved, surprises encountered and the whole aura around the travel. As an author Jim could have definitely been better. Nonetheless, do read this book if travel is what your dream is made of.

Discover Delhi XIII: Old Delhi Walk VII: Wandering around Shahajahanabad

I was again in Old Delhi, standing in front of Jain Lal temple and tracing a mental path of the walk for the day. The more I walk around this area, the more I want to know, the more I want to explore, the more I know of that I do not know. I yearn to talk to the people on the road, on the side lanes, in shops, in prayer halls of various religions, in hotels and those who are walking on the same road. My garb makes me look like a tourist and even when I speak in Hindi, people reply back in English, and when I point this out to them, they stop and think for a moment but then again continue in English, however broken it may be. This is besides the fact that I have no trace of being a non-Indian in my looks.

With these thoughts in mind, I cross the road and come to a small lane, which has two main attractions, and God only knows how they came to co-exist in this narrow lane. First one is electronics market, where you can go and buy anything, mostly fake items, and all possible pirated videos and even get your electronic items repaired. The second is the flower market, where you would see piles of fresh flowers, still containing all the fragrance being woven together in garland by various hands. If you focus your eyes on needle that goes through the flowers one by one, all you would see is some dusky hands, an almost invisible needle and thread, and mountains of flowers being sewn together. Some petals fall away, and others just mourn the parting away of a part of them. In some time, they will be a part of a dead stone who people think to be representation of God, and by tomorrow the fragrance would be gone, and what would remain would a skeleton of what it is today. Whatever be the journey, they would cease to be flower in a day or two and become a part of garbage.

Move on and the electronics gives way to the electrical goods market, with a few hidden eateries here and there. Stop by for the famous Japani Samosa, which is something that you get only on this corner. This time the Samosa guy also offered me to try his Sarson ka Saag, which he said is his new recipe along with Tandoori Makki ki Roti. I tasted it, but I could not have it to my heart’s content then, but I am going back for it someday. Along the way you see the smallest retail formats, where a small pushcart serves as everything from a storehouse to a kitchen to a cooking and serving platform and customers just cluster around and enjoy the fresh food.

On the road is an Arya Samaj Dowan Hall, and the road is named after this place. This is a big auditorium with a dharamshala on top. Not a very well maintained building, but I feel that it must have been an important place during the independence movement. There is supposed to a small temple in the building, but we could not find any and nor could we find anyone to explain the place to us. There is also old Moti Cinema hall, which is still operating and is usually playing a latest hit. It has been ages that I watched a movie in a single screen old style cinema, so another to do in my list. Walk along and get into Baghirath palace. Today it is a mish mesh of narrow lanes some of which lead to dead ends and some to other areas of old Delhi. This place is famous of decorative electrical items like lamp shades. You see a row of shops selling various electrical goods and items, some of them would make you feel nostalgic about the past like gramophones and old tape recorders.

Somewhere in this chaos you would find a huge colonial style building which now serves as a premises for a bank, and has Lloyds Bank Limited written on its top. It is a heritage building, which once belonged to Begum Samru in early 19^th century. The last Mughal, Bahadur Shah is said to have stayed in this building after he was captured for being involved in the mutiny of 1857. This was bought by Seth Bhagirath Mal in mid 20^th century and hence the area got the name. The pillars in the front give a Greek appearance. The major portion of the palace is now used by the bank, and the rest has been distorted beyond recognition to accommodate shops all over and all around. Like I always say, you have to go to Old Delhi with a lot of imagination for you to be able to see how grand the things would have been and how luxurious the lifestyle of the inhabitants of these palatial buildings may have been. Surprisingly, it is not very easy to locate this building and when you ask around, no one really knew it by Begum Samru’s name.

Walk out of the palace and your imagination and the road would lead you to Mor Sarai. On both of sides of the road you would see several small temples, some of which have been institutionalized by giving a coherent look with the shops in background and some of them are just besides the tree. All of them have a glazed tile layer now, making it easy to be maintained for the caretaker, and a grill which can be closed at night, often painted red to indicate the allegiance. The idols wear the saffron clothes and you would see passers by stop and pray for few moments and then move on.

As the Mor Sarai joins the road leading to old Delhi railway station on its right, on your left you would see a huge building, looking like an old army barrack with Delhi Public library written on it. This road was originally called Queen’s road, and has a garden which as called the Company Bagh, and is now called Bench and Bar club. Names indicate that the road must have been an important one, as it had the railway station, the most used mode of transportation joining the red fort through this road. Today too it remains an important and busy road. The company Bagh is now used by people to do whatever they like, the board is used to dry clothes for the people who live in or around the Bagh.

Dellhi public library was my chance discovery of this walk. The front door was closed but the casual enquiries lead us to the back door and we were lucky enough to meet the librarian who took us around and gave us the guided tour of the place. You may not know that this is the biggest public library system in Asia. They have books in English, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, along with a library of audios and videos in various formats and more than 15,000 books in Braille. They also have a collection of paintings, children’s books, newspapers, periodicals and reference books. In this age and time too, the life time cost to access this library is mere Rs 2/- . You have to be a resident of Delhi and you can either visit the library or get the books through courier. The old catalogs have been digitized and made available online. This library was established just before independence and was inaugurated by Pt Nehru just after independence. There is a big auditorium in the library premises, which was full of books that the library intends to donate or give away as most of them are in a dilapidated state. I have not, and I believe most people would not have seen so many books together, piled on top of each other. As our eyes were lost in this amazing sight of books all around, I saw a wooden plank at the end of the auditorium and I was told that there is a room below this auditorium of the same size and that is also completely filled with books. Can a bibliophile ask for anything more? Library staff was very co-operative and without asking any reasons they showed us around and told us about library, not a usual case with most government run organizations.

What was more intriguing about that wooden plank was not just a parallel room below the auditorium but a Surang or a secret passage that goes from here all the way to Red fort. The passage has apparently been closed so that it is not misused, but this leaves a question about the age of the building. Was it really a British Barrack? Was the secret passage constructed by the British? Or was there an old Mughal building which was probably a part of the red fort and was later converted by the British as a barrack. The area was in the limits of Red fort as further down the road at Bankhandi temple, there is a Burj or a dome that is said to be one of the points from where the red fort was guarded. An interesting place to spend a day among books and a mysterious piece of history…

Some way down the road is Bankhandi temple, which literally means a temple in the jungle. Before I reached the temple, I expected it to an ancient temple, from the times when this area was a jungle, just like some of the mosques and Hazrat Turkman’s dargah, this may belong to the sadhus who preferred to live in seclusion. But I was wrong, and the temple is less than 100 years old. It gets it name from the Sadhus who are Bankkhandi or who have spent some time in either jungles or in Himalayas. There were quite a few sadhus sitting at the entrance of the temple. The ornate entrance actually takes you to a cluster of small temples covering all major Hindu deities. When we expressed a wish to know more about the temple, we were taken to the head priest, who is also a Sashu who has lived in Himalayas for sometime before coming to this temple. He was young and agile and lived in a cave look alike basement of the temple. We chatted with him for sometime and whatever he said was often acknowledged with adjectives by his disciples and other sadhus. Interestingly, he was also as curious about us as we were about him. He offered us tea and it was a nice conversation over tea. He also pointed us to the red fort dome in the temple premises. There were some intriguing bells on the wall of this temple, where the passing by public can stop, ring the bells, say a small prayer without getting into a temple and move on.

From here we moved towards the town halls, going past the Mahatama Gandhi Park, which is a fairly large park given the congestion around it. The statue is royally used by the birds to rest and relieve themselves. On the footpath outside the park is a long line of load bearers who are in a queue waiting for their turn to be engaged. A little further, there is a pink colored mosque which is under renovation. On the left is Town hall, where I assume number of government departments operate from. A statue of Swami Shradhhanand adorns the front of town hall and this is where you would see whole lot of pigeons. You can feed them or simply stand there and watch them enjoy their food and take collective fights.

It is time now to stop by and enjoy some old Delhi food. The more I walk around Old Delhi, the more I come to know of things that I need to see…hope to continue this journey while weather is benevolent and I am here in this city.