City of Djinns: A Year in DelhiAlive with the mayhem of the present and sparkling with William Dalrymple's irrepressible wit, 'City of Djinns' is a fascinating portrait of a city. Watched over and protected by the mischievous, invisible djinns, Delhi has, through their good offices, been saved from destruction many times over the centuries. With an extraordinary array of characters, from elusive eunuchs to the last remnants of the Raj, Dalrymple's second book is a unique and dazzling feat of research. Over the course of a year he comes to know the bewildering city intimately, and brilliantly conveys its magical nature, peeling back successive layers of history, and interlacing innumerable stories from Delhi's past and present. |
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Aleck arches arrived asked Aurangzeb Balvinder Singh bazaars beard beautiful began Begum bird British brother building built bungalow century Chaman colour courtyard crowd dancing Dara dark Delhi-wallahs dervish djinns dome door Dr Haidar Dr Jaffery dressed elephant Emperor Empire English eunuchs eyes father Fraser garden Gate girls Guru hakim hands Hastinapura head hijra Hindu Ibn Battuta Imperial India Islam Jaffery's Jama Masjid Jumna Khan Khizr Lal Kot later lived look Lutyens's Mahabharata mirza Moniack morning mosque Mughal Muhammed Muslim never night Nizam-ud-Din Old City Old Delhi Olivia Pakeezah Pakistan palace Persian prayers Punjab Puri Puri's qawwalis Red Fort replied Residency rickshaw road Roshanara ruins Sadr-ud-Din Sahib Shah Jehan Shahjehanabad Shaykh shrine side Sikh sitting Skinner story suddenly Sufi Sultan taxi tomb took Tughluk turned Urdu village walked walls William wrote