City of Djinns

City of ghost
Author William Dalrymple
Illustrator Olivia Fraser
Language English
Subject Travel
Publisher Penguin Books.
Publication date
 1993
Preceded by In Xanadu: A Quest
Followed by From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium

City of Djinns (1994) is a travelogue by William Dalrymple about the historical capital of India, Delhi. It is his second book, and culminated as a result of his six-year stay in New Delhi.

City of Djinns was the first product of Dalrymple’s love affair with India, centring on Delhi, a city with ‘a bottomless seam of stories’. Shaped more like a novel than a travel book,[1] he and his wife encounter a teeming cast of characters: his Sikh landlady, taxi drivers, customs officials, and British survivors of the Raj,[2] as well as whirling dervishes and eunuch dancers (‘a strange mix of piety and bawdiness’). Dalrymple describes ancient ruins[3] and the experience of living in the modern city: he goes in search of the history behind the epic stories of the Mahabharata. Still more seriously, he finds evidence of the city’s violent past and present day - the 1857 mutiny against British rule; the Partition massacres in 1947; and the riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984.

The book followed his established style of historical digressions, tied in with contemporary events and a multitude of anecdotes.

Adaptations

The book has now been made into a play by Rahul Dasinnur Pulkeshi of Delhi-based Dreamtheatre [4] . Dalrymple is played by Bollywood and stage actor Tom Alter, with Zohra Sehgal playing the role of Nora Nicholson, a British national who prefers to stay in India after it achieves Independence.

Awards

Citation

Dalrymple, William (1994). City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-637595-2

References

  1. ↑ Indeed, some Indian historians have opined it is a novel 'masquerading' as a travel book; eg HL Kaul, Delhi Illuminator, 1997
  2. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/india/10988534/William-Dalrymple-on-Delhi.html
  3. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/india/10988534/William-Dalrymple-on-Delhi.html
  4. ↑ "‘City of Djinns’ is being dramatized, with lots of flavour and fun thrown in". The LiveMint.com. Retrieved 2007-06-29.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.