This book City of Djinns re-enforces my belief that you need a foreigner’s eye to observe a city. At the Red Fort, my imagination failed me, it seemed the place has no soul. While places like Qutab Minar you can actually look at the Minar or the ruins around it and imagine the majestic feel that it would have had in its hay days. But also stinks of a lot of blood that it has seen. The Red Fort feels something that may have been majestic. Having visited them recently, though a lot of them are in far better shape today than they would have been the early 90s. I could connect with his observations around the monuments of Delhi. Does it not make you stop and think what the present government is trying to do?

Be it Pandavas, be it Lodhis, be it Shahajahan and be it British. He also observes that through the ages the rulers of Delhi have tried to create a city here that would be best in the world.

At the same time whoever came here from anywhere has left a mark that continues to be an integral part of the city. Right from the time of Pandavas till the British who were the last ones to build the New Delhi.

He also shares a myth that whoever built Delhi lost it, which has not been proved otherwise till now. But the saints of the city continue to live irrespective of who rules the city and how big the kingdom is. Like that the kings and emperors who built the city came and went leaving behind just the buildings. The author points to some interesting observations about the myths around this city. And through the literature that he read during this time. He takes you to various eras through his interactions with the people who are remnants of those eras, through the various structures that punctuate the city. He speaks of the present through his landlords, his taxi driver and by making you feel the weather of the city. Author along with his wife spent a year in Delhi and discovered the city. Deriving inferences from them but without any judgments made of any kind. It is a book written with lots of observations and through numerous conversations. Both as they exist today and as they would have existed in the known history and as they may have existed in the lesser known times. And it is through these stories of the Djinns that he weaves a story for us hovering over this ever powerful city.Ĭity of Djinns is a well-rounded book that presents the various aspects of the city. And some he visited through the majestic ruins left behind by the djinns. Some he visited through the written word, through letters and books of travelers of those days. Some Djinns he dug and found out in the bylanes and ruins of this age-old city. There are some Djinns who the author visited who define Delhi as it exists today. But to me, the author has actually visited various Djinns that define this city and its various eras. How the author was told by a Sufi saint that Delhi is a city of Djinns. The book begins by describing the name of the book.

William dalrymple books in hindi