old delhi is shrouded in capillaries - electrical wires, telephone wires, mysterious wires, pointless wires, pipelines, tangled kite thread, washing line. it is a tangle that's lyrical and mind boggling at once. if you unravel it, the old city may fall apart.
yet, you would be a fool to mourn.
she has fallen apart and risen time and again. she is indulgent of kings and queens, she likes their ambition - and the immortality they hold in their hearts. delhi was raised by dreamers - none of whom could keep her in their fist. we can rearrange her if we feel like. she can handle one more empire.
5 comments:
How lyrically & yet powerfully you put what, for many of us, are mundane even repulsive surroundings.
Arun
dilli didn't encounter electrical wires any of those 9 times. all the people who lived in all of those empires would still not add up to the current numbers ;)
true. this time round, its a gathering of an ocean of lost pilgrims and sheep. and so we wrap the buildings in whatever we can to break our fall.
the desert does have a spice of its own and dilli is the edge of the desert. still great for internalization
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