Dalrymple’s second book after the acclaimed In Xanadu (1989), it went on to win the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award (1994) and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award (1994). But where does it stand today? Literary accomplishment was to be valued...but more important still was grammatical correctness 'In society the mirza should (always) try to guard against the shame of committing any mistake in conversation, for such incorrectness in speech is considered a great fault in a gentleman. If you think it is bad now,’ said Mr Lal, taking my application. ‘You should see this office on Fridays. That’s the busiest time.’ The civilization I belong to – the civilization of Delhi – came into being through the mingling of two different cultures, Hindu and Muslim. That civilization flourished for one thousand years undisturbed until certain people came along and denied that that great mingling had taken place.’ I read it while visiting a friend who was also spending one year in India as a Fulbright scholar. She was sharing an apartment in South of Delhi with other Fulbrighters, and that apartment had become as a kind of warm and welcoming consulate-refugee camp for any friend or friend of friends going through India. I was one of those migrants.

City of Djinns - Wikipedia

Authoritarian regimes tend to leave the most solid souvenirs; art has a strange way of thriving under autocracy. Only the vanity of an Empire- an Empire emancipated from democratic constraints, totally self-confident in its own judgement and still, despite everything, assured of its own superiority-could have produced Lutyens's Delhi" The book talks about the soul of Delhi, in a mesmerising, heart rending way, in a manner so poignant that I can smell the Delhi smoke and walk among the streets The scope of the book is incredible, but his skills as a writer are so brilliant that you just float effortlessly from theme to theme, carried on a cloud of warmth and humour. The book covers an amazing spectrum though, and of course different bits of it will appeal more or less to different people. Even so, it is all hugely readable.With profound grief we have to condole the untimely passing of our beloved general manager MISTER DEEPAK MEHTA, thirty four years, who left us for heavenly abode in tragic circumstances (beaten to death with bedpost). Condole presented by bereft of Mehta Agencies (Private) Limited. The book follows Dalrymple’s now familiar style of tying together contemporary events and anecdotes with historical tales and fantastical legends. In his quest for the city’s (in)famous djinns (fire-formed spirits), Dalrymple and his wife, the book’s illustrator Olivia Fraser, meet a series of interesting characters. They include a thrifty Sikh landlady and her eccentric husband; a jovial taxi driver; various government officials; eunuchs; whirling dervishes; and living relics of the British Raj. The Many Cities of Delhi in the City of Djinns In Delhi, right of way belongs to the driver of the largest vehicle", shows he wrote the book with exceptional observation. The woman broke down in a convulsion of grateful sobs. Beside her Mr Gupta was still in full flood:

City of Djinns by William Dalrymple | Waterstones

Coming next to the need to categorize every artifact and building by a Muslim/ Hindu boolean, WD blindly ignores (to the benefit of his readers) the complexity and syncretism of Indian society. Taj Mahal is called one of the most beautiful buildings in all of "Islam". The Taj is Mughal and Indian; but such details are ignored to propagate the dangerous and wrong notion that it is an Islamic monument. As Indian historian Sohail Hashmi argues: is there such a thing as "Christian" architecture? No, there is Classical, Baroque, Gothic, etc. but there exists Muslim and Hindu architecture. Dualities are over-amplified in these incorrect generalizations at the expense of the people who inhabit the subcontinent.Other changes in the city were less promising. The roads were becoming clogged; pollution was terrible. Every day the sluggish waters of the Jumna were spiced with some 350 million gallons of raw sewage. Reading City Of Djinns was like reading a fascinating novel and I soon found that it was not a typical travelogue but an enchanting chronicle of the historic city of Delhi. Dalrymple was not just describing to the reader about each sights that comes across him and then moving on to the next destination; he was taking the reader along with him for a captivating journey through location and time inspecting and interacting with key elements and moments from the cities epic history spanning centuries.

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi: William Dalrymple

He pursues Delhi’s interlacing layers of history along narrow alleys and broad boulevards, brilliantly conveying its intoxicating mix of mysticism and mayhem. Most strikingly absent, however, is any REFLECTION about the author's power and privilege in Indian society. This grave omission surfaces in many instances: how this man can walk about all of Delhi with what I would go so far as to call special access. When a house staff member invites him to the wedding and not another long-term colleague from the house staff, WD completely misses the social dynamics (of inviting/ having a white person at a wedding). Instead, he is busy impressing people at the wedding with his Hindi and poorly translating the Devi Lal slogan (read: there is no "Fall" in Haryana...). If they ever manage to raise the money — yes. But these days who is going to give funds for a proper ten-year excavation?’My name is Sunil Gupta—please call me Sunny.’ He strode forward and grabbed Mr Lal by the hand, shaking it with great verve. I was the founder editor of Sari, the Hindi monthly for women and Kalidasa, the biannual literary journal of Patna. I have donated five acres of land for the Chote Nagpur Cow Hospital. Four times I have been jailed by the Britishers for services to Mother Bharat.’