City Of Djinns: A Year In Delhi Quotes
"The city is now so dirty. Everything is old and falling down."
"The most visible change was in the buildings."
"The old Delhi-wallahs continue to come here, but now they are so few."
"The city of djinns is Delhi and Dalrymple reveals it like a Dance of the Seven Veils."
"Minds set in different ages walked the same pavements, drank the same water, returned to the same dust."
"The violence totally gutted many of the poorer parts of Delhi."
"The same people who would invite you to share their last plate of food could, with equal spontaneity, lose control and run amok."
"In a year, when he has eaten our nutritious dal and rice, he will double in size."
"Every day, for nine days, I deposited four faxes, three telexes, two envelopes of passport photographs, and a sheaf of letters."
"The desolation is even sadder when a haveli is associated with a known piece of history."
"Through the locked grille you can see the desolation: collapsed rafters now act as a sort of walkway for the cook who squats in the rubble frying his samosas."
"Cusped sandstone arches are buried up to their capitals in rubble; vaults hang suspended in a litter of disintegrating brickwork."
"It is as if the people of Delhi had washed their hands of the fine old mansions of the Old City in their enthusiasm to move into the concrete bunkers of the New."
"Partition was a total catastrophe for Delhi. Those who were left behind are in misery. Those who were uprooted are in misery."
"‘I do not need anything,’ replied the Begum haughtily. ‘Do not come back.’ She paused; then added huskily, almost in a whisper: ‘I just want to be forgotten.’"
"What matters it, O breeze, If now has come the spring When I have lost them both The garden and my nest?"
"Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing which must be earned before it can be enjoyed."
"Each one treasured his childhood memories like a title-deed."
"I can remember seeing them, these little wizened people carrying great hods of bricks and vast bags of cement."
"I have heard several funny stories of William’s whimsical disposition."
"His countenance is certainly materially altered. He is [now] iron in constitution and bodily force."
"He would not either talk, or shoot or read with me... this hurt my pride so much that a considerable coldness took place between us."
"Frequently he has ridden, unarmed saving a sword, into crowds of desperadoes whose only chance was to fight to the last."
"He is surrounded by Goojurs, formerly Barbarians, now like [Scottish] Highlanders; independent to equals, fiery and impetuous, but faithful and obedient."
"These men - formerly robbers and perhaps murderers, certainly the relations of such - now sleep by our couches and would at any time risk their lives for us."
"William’s irregular cavalry may have numbered ten or twenty times this many again."
"According to Jacquemont, Fraser had ‘six or seven legitimate wives’."
"It is now the cold weather... So cold that I am glad to be in my bed until 8 a.m. in the morning."
"The most accomplished band in Delhi belonged to the Begum Sumroe."
"He is a thinker, who finds nothing but solitude in that exchange of words without ideas which is dignified by the name of conversation in the society of this land."
"India is a developing country. Our people are looking to the future only."
"Young man, I’ll have you know that actually I have a very nice life here."
"The Europeans could not bear to see women eat cheese."
"Even the thought of a ‘native’ mistress made him blanch."
"Safdarjung was the richest and most powerful man in India; in all but name he had become an independent ruler."
"Safdarjung’s tomb with its bulbous dome and stained sandstone walls seems somehow flawed and degenerate."
"Inside, the capitals have turned almost into cabbages as they curve and curl in vegetable convulsions."
"The tomb shows how the aesthetes of the age of Safdarjung liked their gateways to be as ornately sculpted as their prose was purple."
"The building tells a story of drunken laughter as the pillars of empire collapsed in a cloud of dust and masonry."
"In the streets hijras are jeered at, sometimes even pelted with rubbish."
"The death of my eldest brother in 1978 was the most important event in my life."
"For the people of Delhi this partridge fighting has always been a happiness."
"The Emperor Shah Jehan governs the Mughal Empire through its period of greatest magnificence."
"In this city, culture and civilization have always been very thin dresses."
"The marriage of Dara to his distant cousin Nadira Begum...the surface of the earth rival the starry expanses of heaven."
"Aurangzeb and the other young princes escorted Dara through the palace to the Forty Pillared Hall of Public Audience."
"Shah Jehan had loaded his son with precious wedding gifts...and the sound of kettle drums of joy rent the skies."
"Having read (and heard) so much about Delhi marriages, I was pleased to actually receive an invitation to one."
"This Mr Postman very good man," said Mr Singh. "Very rich man."
"Dr Haidar proudly explained that the bride, Mr Postman’s daughter, was a rare creature - a Muslim girl who had been educated up to the tenth class."
"The greater number of soldiers that Dara had enlisted were not very warlike; they were butchers, barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors and such like."
"A gentleman ‘should not make too much use of tobacco’ but 'should recognize the Fort in Agra as unequalled in the whole world.'"
"In India, a gentleman 'should not expect intelligence and good behaviour from those who put big turbans on their heads.'"
"‘If the monarch says the day is night, reply - ‘of course: the moon and stars shine bright.’"
"The idea of having my baggage searched was most disagreeable to me."
"An ambitious Muslim could achieve great wealth and prominence there in very little time."
"Muhammed bin Tughluk was especially well known in his generosity to foreigners."
"I saw Begampur for the first time on a hot evening in early May."
"Lying amid waste land to one side of the village, there rose the jutting silhouette of a cyclopean wall."
"‘Tughluk was far too free in shedding blood,’ writes Battuta."
"‘Delhi,’ writes Battuta, is a ‘vast and magnificent city, uniting beauty with strength.'"
"The walls of the houses exuded heat like enormous ovens."
"‘Mr William,’ she said firmly. ‘I am thinking you are not understanding the management of these people.’"
"‘No, no, Mr William,’ he replied. ‘All new computer design. Look — computer system.’"
"Rays from the rising sun were shining through the thick undergrowth of the jungle."
"The further Dr Jaffery and I went into the vortex of vaulted passageways, the less sign there was of the twentieth century."
"‘It is well known,’ wrote the fourteenth-century Delhi poet Isami."
"‘It was nothing but a miracle,’ continued Mr Bose."
"The interior was plain and whitewashed. A reed mat was placed in the centre of the cave, facing on to an arched mihrab cut into the far wall."
"‘This generation is not interested in spiritual attainment,’ said Dr Jaffery."
"Some dervishes can still produce djinns but they are unable to call up Khizr. That takes a greater power. We live in an age of spiritual decay."
"Too many dervishes like to fool simple villagers and take money from them. They pretend to fast but secretly they go off and eat naan and chicken tikka."
"Maybe this is the age of Kali. The dark age, the age of disintegration ... All the signs are there ..."
"‘He laid the country to waste,’ wrote the chronicler Zia-ud-Din Barni."
"‘The fish did not agree with him,’ wrote Barni. ‘His illness returned and the fever increased.’"
"‘Moin-ud-Din knows I am coming from a far country,’ replied Boob Khan. ‘And because of this he pays more attention to my requests.’"
"If it’s a good monsoon all the common people go mad and dance around."