In the City of Djinns, The Past Is Slowly Lost - 24 comments
Reflections on a trip to New Delhi, February 2009.
Cities wearing boots of time have a certain way of marching over memories, leaving them in millions of pieces. Instead what you are left with sharp edged broken fragments. My recent trip to Delhi, a city where I spent my childhood and youth, was one of those bittersweet journeys.
Wherever I turned, I saw strange buildings — ugly in their newness, intruding by their presence. The roads, once wide and open, now clogged with humanity, cars of all sizes and dust… the ever pervasive dust of a city that was been reinventing itself from the dawn of time. The city, which is desperately trying (and failing) to prepare itself for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, is in a state of perpetual motion, never stopping as it runs away from its past, that earned the city its nickname the city of Djinns.
The aristocratic ruins, the undulating lawns of Lyutens’ Delhi, lush gardens have given way to garish billboards, soaring freeways, and a beautiful metro transit system that is going to unite this LA-sized sprawl like never before. That is called progress – some of it unwelcome, much of it necessary, but some of it painful.
The neighborhood where I grew up has lost its solid middle class feel, giving way to tall cigarette box style concrete boxes that pack dozens of people into them. The streets where I once played street-cricket are now a messy parking lot where cars vie for space with vendors, unclaimed stuff, and loosely piled construction materials. The movie theater where I first met James Bond is a giant hole, waiting for construction to start on yet another hotel or maybe an office block.
My college, St. Stephen’s, was once the most beautiful sight beholden by young eyes. Now it seems like a dusty building trying to hold on to values of a time that has passed by. It will not produce a future prime minister, the next brave police officer, or even a decent squash player.
It is part of the change that is city. The change that includes big buildings that pock-mark the outskirts of Delhi (Gurgaon), the Flyways, ominous (and omnipresent) cellular towers, an unseasonably hot February (70F), and half-empty malls. At Emporio Mall I could have been anywhere — Rodeo Drive, Dubai, Hong Kong.
Gucci, Dior, Dunhill, Zegna, Fendi… all jostling for the attention of scant buyers. The only visitors were some families trying to arrange meetings between someone’s disinterested daughters and pampered over eager sons. I loved that I was able to buy a steaming hot decaffeinated espresso for less than $3 a cup, almost grateful for the progress.
The city has its own soundscape — Nokia ringtones, din of the drill hammer, sensual thunder of the metro running overhead… and horns… millions of Delhites blowing horns as they drive their colorfully named, matchbox sized cars in a manner that defies all laws of physics and logic.
A week after trying to walk down memory lanes (mostly riding in the back of a chauffeur driven car) I feel a little lost, but mostly amazed at Delhi’s ability to reinvent itself. Instead of old fading memories I leave with new photos caught in my synapses.
The delightful squeals of my nephew, the warmth of attendees of WordCamp, generosity of absolute strangers, delightfully restored Imperial Hotel, incandescent smile and shy laugh of the youth. The surprise of just finding Sushi in Delhi. An unquestioned warm embrace from old friends — only a few of them left in the city I once called home — these are images for the present and memories of the future.
Those sharp fragments may make you bleed, but in them you can still find a little bit of home.
– Om Malik, February 25, 2009. Photos by Matt Mullenweg.
Om you are right, I feel what you have said…..modern times change the landscape of a home you once knew…..the ugliness you mention of billboards and matchbox buildings to accommodate the many…is just progress….much of it needed….
Just like Delhi, Mumbai my hometown, struggles with modernization..Painful some of it, but brilliant though, how it all goes together!
beautifully written
Hi Om, delhi has been my home for last 28 yrs. Infact that’s the only place I have ever really liked living. It was such a refreshing feeling to read your stuff – especially when you could see beyond the regular crap people write about Delhi.
Cheers
sumeet
Om, my man, masterful!
Stunning photos and an amazing piece of writing. Going home is never what you think it will be.
I love my country like anything .only thing bad is that everything is messed up here.
@all thanks guys. I am glad to be back here in SF and noodling over the trip that was. It was fun to be back.
I really enjoyed this post, imagining Delhi through your words. I haven’t been back to India for a long while, and when I dream of making the trip, I have to keep reminding myself to keep all those things you’ve mentioned in mind.
I’m an emigrant (from another country) as well, and going back is always strange. Our memory of ‘home’ remains static through the years, while cities by nature are in a constant state of change.
It’s always a shock, sometimes sad, sometimes joyous, mainly bewildering, but I can always find a little corner somewhere which takes me back to the old days. Always an experience!
[...] sells a lot of $50-1$100 phones. In places like India, where I just returned from, Nokia’s ringtone is part of the urban soundscapes. It accounts for about 40 percent of total global handset sales. [...]
Wonderful timessay. I lived in Delhi for a year and this kinda brings back memories. Thanks
PS: The credit link to Matt points to your website instead of Matt’s (www.ma.tt)
Om you look healthy and relaxed in those photos ….keep it up !
As I prepare to take my 3 children (all growing up in NJ) to Delhi, I know I can never recreate for them the lost Delhi of my childhood. But then after reading “The Last Mughal” or “The city of Djinns”, I realize that, while no generation has been able to quite hold onto the city of their youth, each has changed it in their own image. Some clearly for the better, some for the worst. Only time will tell what the city will retain and what it will shrug off as the growing pains of a wayward child.
A great article, almost poetic in scope.
What a beautiful post. So evocative!
I grew up in Delhi too – and this is maybe one of the reasons I subconsciously dread the idea of visiting after almost 18 years!
Nice post, Om ji!
Om Ji,
Nice post. Couple of suggestions, would be nice if you can add a slideshow and comments for the pics (especially locations)
People have natural affinity towards their families, clan or country – it is part of the survival instinct that is hard wired into us for good reason. This affinity or fondness still stays with us even when our civilization has been in decline for 2000 years or poverty is so widespread that it doesn’t even bother us. We take umbrage when finger is pointed towards our total lack of planning or our crowded cities or hellish traffic. We tend to blow up our small positives and offer obstinate arguments as to why the everybody else pointing finger at us is wrong.
India unfortunately is at somewhat similar junction, it has few positives which has tremndously inflated the egos of whoever has any semblence of power or money and at the same time is totally oblivious of plight of masses. Even living in so called metros is becoming a nightmare. It is an experiment at a scale unparralled in human history which nobody knows how it will turn out.
[...] response to my previous post about a trip down memory lane, Jon Callaghan, my partner at True Ventures (and also an investor in GigaOM) sent an email that [...]
The Delhi of the moghuls was already lost after partition and the delhi of the babus is being replaced by yet another delhi-that of globalization. Is there any room for Indraprasth ?
loved this bit. I always prefer personal posts over ‘journalistic’ ones.
Can understand how you feel. The ‘change’ is palpable even in 6 months spent out of the country. Delhi is one place where one yearns for the romance of the colonial past, and at the same time looks forward to the new developments that make the same place a world class city. In the few places that give me a sense of belonging, this is one.
oops… fixed the link. sorry about that and sorry ma.tt.
thanks for the heads up.
thanks matt. trying hard to be like that – on that note, going to the gym now. it has been a few days.
@sachit thanks for that comment. nice way to sum it up.
@all, thanks for your compliments. I am glad I could share without being accused of being too emotional
@ashish
ouch and yes true. Your words are a tad more harsh, mine a bit more romantic. nothing takes away the fact that the world is changing. delhi is changing and so is the past.
@ashwin
my posts and the photos are random – sorry but slide show is not such a good idea. i will implement the comments for pictures this weekend.