BackDelhi’s Belly | The city’s signature: an air of aggressive intent
Delhi’s Belly | The city’s signature: an air of aggressive intent
PremiumWith the Rashtrapati Bhavan as backdrop, fashion designer Malini Ramani poses sitting on an imported convertible.
Till as late as the mid-1970s, Delhi was easier to define, and negotiate. Visitors to the Capital got two cities for the price of one. There was ‘Old’ Delhi, Mughal and Islamic heritage intact, dominated by imposing mosques, monuments and forts that even today resonate with the famous declaration by legendary poet Mirza Ghalib: ‘The world is the body and Delhi its soul.’ Behind the history, the old city displays a somewhat bedraggled old-world charm: lively colourful bazaars, celebrated eateries, narrow streets and barely controlled chaos. In contrast, New Delhi, or more precisely, Lutyens’ Delhi (named after its original architect and planner Edwin Lutyens and still referred to in official municipal records as Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone or LBZ), portrays a combination of understated refinement and political and bureaucratic privilege. The two worlds rarely meet but together they convey a true sense of Delhi’s romantic appeal. It’s an appeal that has largely been submerged under the undisciplined urban jungle that has sprouted at such a frenzied pace over the last three decades and diluted all traces of Hindu, Islamic or British influences. Today, it would be difficult to find a single identity or cultural characteristic that defines Delhi, a single way of grasping its complexity
Yet, like people, cities acquire signatures, a universally recognized leitmotif: New York’s skyline, Paris and romance, Milan is synonymous with style and Venice has its waterways. The connection, whether abstract or physical, becomes as permanent a symbol of the city as monuments and memorials. Shorn of its historical influences and privileged status as India’s Capital, and political and constitutional crossbreeding that makes it one of the world’s few remaining city-states, contemporary Delhi flaunts one undeniable signature: an air of aggressive intent. From the frenetic traffic to its egoistic bureaucrats, pampered politicians and social prima donnas, the flashy, nouveau riche and the politician on the roads—everyone displays a practised assertiveness that says, louder than words: ‘Get out of my way’. Everybody is in a tearing hurry to get somewhere, everyone seems to have relatives in high places and even the beggars at traffic crossings bang on your car windows with an arrogance that is almost threatening. Reading the local newspapers, it almost appears that half the city is on the make, the other half on the take.
Excerpted from Delhi Then and Now by Dilip Bobb and Narayani Gupta/Roli Books. Bobb is managing editor of India Today.
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