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sve100's review against another edition
4.0
I started reading Capital after coming back from my last visit to Delhi.
It is great to learn more about the place where I dreamed of living in and actually lived close by for a while.
The author conducts a variety of interviews with people that, together with historical notes, help shape the contemporary face of India's capital.
I would be interested to read a 'sequel' or an updated version, since 9 years have passed since 'Capital' was published and a lot can change in such a period, especially in a country like India
It is great to learn more about the place where I dreamed of living in and actually lived close by for a while.
The author conducts a variety of interviews with people that, together with historical notes, help shape the contemporary face of India's capital.
I would be interested to read a 'sequel' or an updated version, since 9 years have passed since 'Capital' was published and a lot can change in such a period, especially in a country like India
merinshmerin's review against another edition
3.0
I really did enjoy reading this book; the stories and added history were compelling to read. However, I felt that it was long-winded and unnecessarily wordy. It felt very dense and I found myself losing track of what I was reading because I became so caught up in the act of reading. When I let go and allowed myself to just enjoy the stories and not be so focused on analyzing the message I was able to progress more fluently and make better connections with the personal stories.
It does well delving into the different aspects of middle class life in Delhi. I most enjoyed the personal narratives and wish there would have been more of them to help bring some of the different facets of life into scope. Delhi has such a beautiful and interesting culture that has been shaped by so many influences, both from inside and outside, that it feels like only a small portion has been touched. I feel that hearing from more people who grew up and live in that culture would have provided more connections and references for my outside viewpoint to better comprehend.
It does well delving into the different aspects of middle class life in Delhi. I most enjoyed the personal narratives and wish there would have been more of them to help bring some of the different facets of life into scope. Delhi has such a beautiful and interesting culture that has been shaped by so many influences, both from inside and outside, that it feels like only a small portion has been touched. I feel that hearing from more people who grew up and live in that culture would have provided more connections and references for my outside viewpoint to better comprehend.
carofan88425099936334985803975's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
mohsints's review against another edition
4.0
Dasgupta's book is reminiscent of Mehta's "Bombay: Maximum City" in many ways, although he eschews a fair amount of the "technical" history fun favour of anecdotes that describe the Delhi of centuries years ago and today. There are times when he overreaches and explodes into flurries of prose (which worked in his novel, but become second-rate "fantastic realism" occasionally here), but all in all, it's a really fascinating read. Well worth the time.
look_whos_reading's review against another edition
4.0
Rana Dasgupta is a British author who has published "Tokyo Cancelled" and "Solo". He is half Indian on his paternal side and explores this side of his heritage by spending some time in Delhi, India's capital and writing about the city's character from an outsider's point-of-view.
This book was suggested by a friend who knew I’d enjoyed Anand Giridharadas’s “India Calling”. Essentially this book is a portrait of Delhi and so it has rare glimpses of the author’s opinions. The narrative is simple and exhaustive at the same time without giving any leads to the author’s take on these issues. Giridharadas gave more of a personal account of the new India while Dasgupta is more objective in his approach.
The book starts off as being quite one dimensional in terms of the personalities he interacts with. The stories seem to gain momentum slowly and perhaps that helps in mirroring how the author must have grown to understand the city. To assimilate the essence of Delhi (or any city) takes time - through stories about its origins, why Delhi was planned, why India shifted its capital (and the seat of politics) from Calcutta to Delhi, what was the role of the Partition in influencing the air of Delhi and setting the tone for the religious and societal upheaval that took place, the real estate boom, the rise of the bourgeoisie, the parallel drawn to the epic Ramayana, the history of language, literature and arts in the city followed by the exodus of the artists who engaged in Urdu, Sufism and anything rumoured to be "Muslim" to Mumbai, a city most absorbent of cultures... There are stories of the modern day private hospitals, the genesis of the BPO sector responsible for the creation of Gurgaon, the gay scene, and the patriarchal business families in addition to encounters in slums, politics, the situation of middle class families with their maids… the author manages to keep things interesting.
In a way, Rana Dasgupta keeps switching the mood of the book from chapter to chapter. There are things to be proud of in Delhi and others that are shameful. A lot of parallels can be drawn to other modern day cities that have morphed from more ancient cultures. This is definitely worth reading.
You could read an author interview at the following link:
https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-05-08/rana-dasgupta-capital-eruption-delhi
This book was suggested by a friend who knew I’d enjoyed Anand Giridharadas’s “India Calling”. Essentially this book is a portrait of Delhi and so it has rare glimpses of the author’s opinions. The narrative is simple and exhaustive at the same time without giving any leads to the author’s take on these issues. Giridharadas gave more of a personal account of the new India while Dasgupta is more objective in his approach.
The book starts off as being quite one dimensional in terms of the personalities he interacts with. The stories seem to gain momentum slowly and perhaps that helps in mirroring how the author must have grown to understand the city. To assimilate the essence of Delhi (or any city) takes time - through stories about its origins, why Delhi was planned, why India shifted its capital (and the seat of politics) from Calcutta to Delhi, what was the role of the Partition in influencing the air of Delhi and setting the tone for the religious and societal upheaval that took place, the real estate boom, the rise of the bourgeoisie, the parallel drawn to the epic Ramayana, the history of language, literature and arts in the city followed by the exodus of the artists who engaged in Urdu, Sufism and anything rumoured to be "Muslim" to Mumbai, a city most absorbent of cultures... There are stories of the modern day private hospitals, the genesis of the BPO sector responsible for the creation of Gurgaon, the gay scene, and the patriarchal business families in addition to encounters in slums, politics, the situation of middle class families with their maids… the author manages to keep things interesting.
In a way, Rana Dasgupta keeps switching the mood of the book from chapter to chapter. There are things to be proud of in Delhi and others that are shameful. A lot of parallels can be drawn to other modern day cities that have morphed from more ancient cultures. This is definitely worth reading.
You could read an author interview at the following link:
https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-05-08/rana-dasgupta-capital-eruption-delhi
coronaurora's review against another edition
4.0
Capital proved to be an unexpected delight. Dasgupta, a relatively new and unknown Indian voice, writes with a sensitivity and directness that I have seen many accomplished columnists and self-fashioned commentators try and fail. His attempt to decode the hidden underworld behind his adopted city is free from any personal nostalgia and the pointer of his deconstruction is an Eastern megapolis transformed completely while riding on the neoliberalisation wave. The tone largely stays that of an incredulous expatriate who is disturbed and sobered by only the most recent of the jaw-dropping metamorphosis who then sets about putting microphones before the mouths of the movers and shakers along with the moved and the shaken to make sense of the disorienting din.
Armed with the emerging vignettes, he inserts himself regularly with a sweeping overlong editorial distilled from the recent historical and economic touchstones that is driving the city's contemporary citizens aspirations and ideals. The end result is an updated polyphonic biography of the city and a commendable effort at encasing the narrative of this city's metamorphosis as a synecdoche and a cautionary tale for the global phenomenon of crony-capitalism and its consequences, both for the ever-more dispossessed and expanding masses and the ever-narrowing, flourishing classes. The particular transformation of Delhi is as comprehensive as the more general extrapolations.
I have read many an articulate account that bemoaned the total loss of pre-Partition cultural sophistication and pre-British regalia of Mughal kingdoms, especially in City of Djinns (Dalrymple) and Delhi (Khushwant Singh), but here that moan is tied to a longer, later post-post-colonial transformation narrative that bookends its new transformation as the latest tragic chapter to a city that has braved multiple complete annihilations. This decimation is relevant as the emergent population, migrant and resident, fresh from the convulsions of Partition and 1984 riots, have bred themselves and their future generations as ten-fanged entrepreneurs and wealth-accumulating warriors whose thirst for building and owning is unquenchable. The incessant land-grabbing, license-acquring, real-estate speculating predictably facilitated by the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats have enabled a few to stir their way up into the cream of the Delhi coffee cup. From the drip-by-drip account of the economic policies executed by this nexus of the politicians and the lobbying business class, Dasgupta's persuasive thesis constructs the origins of the present grotesque sub-society of three-tier reality made of the inaccessible cabal of connected and wealthy billionaires, the middle-class sold to derivative materialist dreams and the underclass of billions subsisting on abuse and pitiable scraps of the above two, with alarming acuity.
He joins the dots of prevalent attitudes and behaviours with spectacular ease. Of particular note is his deconstruction of unprecedented violence against women in the city and a city-wide obsession with security and boundaries. I did not see the anthropological connection to traditional idea of women being custodians of Indian-ness in post-colonial Indian reality that was demolished by a newfound mobility unleashing a horrifying war against the gender. Punctuating his neat explanations are extempore streams-of-consciousnesses of carefully chosen subjects from across the socio-economic spectrum that air their grievances, moral vacuities, justifications, intellectual poverties, motivations and compensatory mechanisms with ease and simplicity: drugs, automobiles, mansions, farmhouses, parties: the Faustian pacts signed for these and their multi-limbed repercussions: the delusions and breakdowns manage to transmit the mindspace of the metropolis. The old and the dispossessed also get to bemoan the lack of culture or any semblance of society. Dasgupta's concern is endearing: a patient account of medical malpractice representing the apex of everyday apathy and corruption infecting the firms running private hospital corporations tears into the reader as much as a walk with him up the silted-with-sewage Yamuna river that now floods every year.
It's almost a relief-less catastrophic narrative teeming with incident, wailing with concern and it made me wonder aloud at the future of such a metropolis, and many like it around the world, post-solidification of the lava ejected by the free-market volcano. Presumably, after the gloss of capitalism has dulled for a critical mass of the population and the consequences of global ecological plunder starts forcing whole nation-states with their respective populations to co-operate, to restructure, to redistribute resources both within and outside, such remorseless billionaires with their conquests could become outmoded. The need of the hour is new leaders to form a "new experiential and philosophical base" according to Dasgupta. Given the leanings of the newest elect for India's premier and a whole new mega-wave of neoliberalisation in tow, this utopia has just become a little more distant and the walled, concrete inferno is here to stay.
Armed with the emerging vignettes, he inserts himself regularly with a sweeping overlong editorial distilled from the recent historical and economic touchstones that is driving the city's contemporary citizens aspirations and ideals. The end result is an updated polyphonic biography of the city and a commendable effort at encasing the narrative of this city's metamorphosis as a synecdoche and a cautionary tale for the global phenomenon of crony-capitalism and its consequences, both for the ever-more dispossessed and expanding masses and the ever-narrowing, flourishing classes. The particular transformation of Delhi is as comprehensive as the more general extrapolations.
I have read many an articulate account that bemoaned the total loss of pre-Partition cultural sophistication and pre-British regalia of Mughal kingdoms, especially in City of Djinns (Dalrymple) and Delhi (Khushwant Singh), but here that moan is tied to a longer, later post-post-colonial transformation narrative that bookends its new transformation as the latest tragic chapter to a city that has braved multiple complete annihilations. This decimation is relevant as the emergent population, migrant and resident, fresh from the convulsions of Partition and 1984 riots, have bred themselves and their future generations as ten-fanged entrepreneurs and wealth-accumulating warriors whose thirst for building and owning is unquenchable. The incessant land-grabbing, license-acquring, real-estate speculating predictably facilitated by the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats have enabled a few to stir their way up into the cream of the Delhi coffee cup. From the drip-by-drip account of the economic policies executed by this nexus of the politicians and the lobbying business class, Dasgupta's persuasive thesis constructs the origins of the present grotesque sub-society of three-tier reality made of the inaccessible cabal of connected and wealthy billionaires, the middle-class sold to derivative materialist dreams and the underclass of billions subsisting on abuse and pitiable scraps of the above two, with alarming acuity.
He joins the dots of prevalent attitudes and behaviours with spectacular ease. Of particular note is his deconstruction of unprecedented violence against women in the city and a city-wide obsession with security and boundaries. I did not see the anthropological connection to traditional idea of women being custodians of Indian-ness in post-colonial Indian reality that was demolished by a newfound mobility unleashing a horrifying war against the gender. Punctuating his neat explanations are extempore streams-of-consciousnesses of carefully chosen subjects from across the socio-economic spectrum that air their grievances, moral vacuities, justifications, intellectual poverties, motivations and compensatory mechanisms with ease and simplicity: drugs, automobiles, mansions, farmhouses, parties: the Faustian pacts signed for these and their multi-limbed repercussions: the delusions and breakdowns manage to transmit the mindspace of the metropolis. The old and the dispossessed also get to bemoan the lack of culture or any semblance of society. Dasgupta's concern is endearing: a patient account of medical malpractice representing the apex of everyday apathy and corruption infecting the firms running private hospital corporations tears into the reader as much as a walk with him up the silted-with-sewage Yamuna river that now floods every year.
It's almost a relief-less catastrophic narrative teeming with incident, wailing with concern and it made me wonder aloud at the future of such a metropolis, and many like it around the world, post-solidification of the lava ejected by the free-market volcano. Presumably, after the gloss of capitalism has dulled for a critical mass of the population and the consequences of global ecological plunder starts forcing whole nation-states with their respective populations to co-operate, to restructure, to redistribute resources both within and outside, such remorseless billionaires with their conquests could become outmoded. The need of the hour is new leaders to form a "new experiential and philosophical base" according to Dasgupta. Given the leanings of the newest elect for India's premier and a whole new mega-wave of neoliberalisation in tow, this utopia has just become a little more distant and the walled, concrete inferno is here to stay.
rkapil7's review against another edition
5.0
I moved to Delhi in 7 years ago and found the road signs in four languages - Hindi, English, Punjabi & Urdu. But found people using later two languages rarely. Even my Punjabi friends from Delhi couldn't speak Punjabi. I also found Hazrat Nizamuddin cryptic - only known for the railway station but not for his Urdu poetry. Reading this book was clearing this basics.
The kind of depth author has gone to to portray Delhi is absolute praiseworthy. Just there is a ideological bias against liberalization of Economy when this Western author confuses Indian bureaucracy with 'planned capitalism', finds liberalization helping rich more but doesn't delve much into socialism which helped none. Rest the book is a true masterpiece.
The kind of depth author has gone to to portray Delhi is absolute praiseworthy. Just there is a ideological bias against liberalization of Economy when this Western author confuses Indian bureaucracy with 'planned capitalism', finds liberalization helping rich more but doesn't delve much into socialism which helped none. Rest the book is a true masterpiece.
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