City of Djinns
Encyclopedia
City of Djinns 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, he and his wife encounter a teeming cast of characters: his Sikh landlady, taxi drivers, customs officials, and British survivors of the Raj, as well as whirling dervishes and eunuch dancers (‘a strange mix of piety and bawdiness’). Dalrymple describes ancient ruins 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 (anticipating The Last Mughal); the Partition massacres in 1947; and the riots after the assassination of Mrs Gandhi in 1984.
The book followed his established style of historical digressions, tied in with contemporary events and a multitude of anecdotes.
The book has now been made into a play by Rahul Dasinnur Pulkeshi of Delhi-based Dreamtheatre
. Dalrymple is played by Bollywood
and stage actor Tom Alter
, with Zohra Segal playing the role of Nora Nicholson, a British national who prefers to stays in India after it achieves Independence.
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. It is his second book, and culminated as a result of his six-year stay in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
.
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, he and his wife encounter a teeming cast of characters: his Sikh landlady, taxi drivers, customs officials, and British survivors of the Raj, as well as whirling dervishes and eunuch dancers (‘a strange mix of piety and bawdiness’). Dalrymple describes ancient ruins 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 (anticipating The Last Mughal); the Partition massacres in 1947; and the riots after the assassination of Mrs Gandhi in 1984.
The book followed his established style of historical digressions, tied in with contemporary events and a multitude of anecdotes.
The book has now been made into a play by Rahul Dasinnur Pulkeshi of Delhi-based Dreamtheatre
. Dalrymple is played by Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
and stage actor Tom Alter
Tom Alter
Tom Alter is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is best known for his work in Bollywood, but has also worked in the theatre...
, with Zohra Segal playing the role of Nora Nicholson, a British national who prefers to stays in India after it achieves Independence.
Awards
- Thomas Cook Travel Book AwardThomas Cook Travel Book AwardThe Thomas Cook Travel Book Award originated as an initiative of Thomas Cook AG in 1980, with the aim of encouraging and rewarding the art of literary travel writing. The awards stopped in 2005...
(1994) - Sunday Times Young Writer Of The Year AwardSunday Times Young Writer of the Year AwardThe Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award is a literary prize awarded to a British author under the age of 35 for a published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry...
(1994)