Delhi-Adventures in a Megacity

                        Travel

Delhi-Adventures in a Megacity

Sam Miller

           

Sam Miller worked for BBC's World Service TV and was stationed in Delhi for a couple of years in early 1990s. He returned to Delhi in 2002 to live here permanently. He is married to an Indian.

           

He is an avid walker and calls himself a 'Flaneur', a French word for one who walks a city aimlessly. He considers walking the best way to see a city. I too love walking. Though I have not explored the streets of Delhi systematically, I've walked its roads on many an occasion in winters, on a refreshingly sunny Sunday, equipped with a small backpack containing a thin book, a bottle of water and a packet of biscuits, covering 12-20 kilometres on each perambulation. The sound of your own feet tapping the ground rhythmically, endlessly, on-and-on; slight perspiration at the nape of the neck; freedom of venturing into any street or wading into any crowd with no anxiety of missing any deadline; these are the ingredients that lure me to walk the roads of any town or city that I visit, at the smallest opportunity offered. Perhaps, this shared interest made me realise from the beginning that I would like Miller's book.

Sam Miller wants to walk maximum length of Delhi streets and roads and wants to visit most of its expansive spread. He decides to choose a spiral, as this form will allow him to cover most parts of Delhi without missing out on large chunks or visiting same place again. He is inquisitive, patient and persevering in his quest. Because he has no fixed itinerary-accept to follow the chosen spiral of the day-and no destination to reach, he leisurely examines and enjoys all and sundry that he witnesses on his walks. He visits Lutyen's Delhi's sprawling bungalows and the slums on the slope of open drains overflowing with sewerage; swanky hospitals and the filthy, inhuman open-air abattoir of Old Delhi; the incredibly crowded, jostling and throbbing streets of Chandni Chowk and the lonely, imperial vistas of Raisina Hill and its proud magnificent sandstone buildings; the up-town south Delhi houses and the mushrooming ugly townships of lower middle-class houses in East-Delhi; the forbidding embassy buildings of Chanakyapuri and the Brahmakumari's Ashram in Old Delhi with its quaint teachers and followers; the well laid out green spaces of Nehru Park and Central Park in Connaught Place and the Kikkar-shrub infested boon-docks of the Ridge.

He offers his impressions of the place he visits. These are intelligent, witty and engrossing. He makes attempts to engage locals in conversation. Often, he sees himself in a funny situation and does not spare an opportunity to laugh at himself. His prose is effortless, simple and often humorous. He provides interesting nuggets of little-known historical facts about Delhi. He analyses the present problems of this mega city. His opinion, not always erudite, is never wanting in originality, often laced with beguiling irreverence and refreshing idiosyncrasies.

I found this book fun to read. I came to know and enjoy, though vicariously, many areas of Delhi I had never known. I'm sure this book will prod many passive walkers to pull up their socks and tighten the laces of their snickers as they once again set out on exploration of their city.