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andrea_ashima's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
nuts246's review against another edition
4.0
I first read this book soon after leaving Delhi after three years in the city. There was so much to learn, I was quite fascinated. But when I re read the book, it felt quite flat. The ‘past’ didn’t seem as fascinating and the ‘now’ was actually quite tedious. I guess we all evolve.
shutupdivs's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
i actually really hated this book in the beginning bc i found that me and the narrator were on different ends of the moral spectrum. but then as the book progressed and as i got to learn abt Delhi's rich history through the povs of different Dilliwallas in different timelines, i guess i fell in love with the city and the book alike. my favourite pov was that of poet and lover Meer. what i love abt the book is that it humanises emperor and terrorist alike. Khuswant Singh's language is lucid and accessible ; i love the bits of poetry thrown in between the prose.
it is a wonder how the same thing can be so harrowing and beautiful at the same time, how this city of emperors experienced ruin and rebirth side by side.
it is a wonder how the same thing can be so harrowing and beautiful at the same time, how this city of emperors experienced ruin and rebirth side by side.
natsume00's review against another edition
4.0
You can overview 700 years in India through this novel. I felt as if I were touching the accumulated time made from people's lives and deaths though I knew almost nothing about the history of India. Great book.
dei2dei's review against another edition
4.0
Delhi through the years, mixed with Delhi-today, and a compelling and interesting historical jaunt. Singh pulls no punches with the sorts of things which happened, or might have happened, and it's a pleasant to the sugar-coated histories that never want to talk about rapes, murders, and the like. If reading about hermaphrodites and perhaps a slight overkill on sex references doesn't turn you away from reading material, this is a definite must-read for a look at Delhi's past and what she is today.
surjavo_21's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
eely225's review against another edition
4.0
It is important to read this book not strictly as a novel, but also as a historical treatise. Singh is not merely trying to tell stories, he is telling parallel histories in order to say something fundamental about Delhi's (and India's) history and identity. He's more historian than novelist, so you don't necessarily come for the turns of phrase, but he does a good job of making his case through the metaphorical adventures of his main character, as well as the time traveling chapters interspersed throughout. The points he makes in terms of class and identity, along with the exclusivist narratives that those things can inspire, are relevant well beyond the limits of his country. The book is a good starting place for someone looking to get a sense of the many eras of Indian governance, as well as pivotal events and transitions. The breadth of the narrative is useful for indicating points of further interest as well.
ini_ya's review against another edition
3.0
I remember liking the book, especially the historical bits
ayereads's review against another edition
2.0
The writer was not kidding when he said in the note that he "injected" a lot of "seminal fluid in it".
There are scenes in this book which are completely unnecassary and just there because of the sexual content it.
This is my third book by Mr.Singh and all(most) of his male protagonists annoy the hell out of me and this one was no different, how his sexual encounters with random women are linked to the history of Delhi, i can not understand.
This character disturb me at so many points like-
1-" That bloody bitch! i muttered, WHAT SHE NEED IS TO BE PUT ACROSS THE KNEE, HER JEANS RIPPED OFF AND A FEW HARD SMACKS ON HER LARGE, MELON SIZED BOTTOM" this is a direct quote about a 16-17 yr old girl that our main guy meets.
2-"Facing him is a 14 year old girl with her chemise raised over her shoulder.MY HALF SHUT EYES FOCUS ON HER YOUNG BOSOMBUDS" ????? my mind stopped working for a second.
(there are so many more, i couldn't even bother)
Not to mention every single women that this 60 yr old likes to judge that he encounters in his life.
I DESPISED HIM. ( i wished this character was given on-page death tbh)
The history was written in a very interesting way, I was occasionally bored but on most parts it was good.Athough it seemed,some parts were made 'juicier' at some points. How much of the history (told from first person's perspective) that is told is fictional, i do not know, i may have to check that.
I may have to hold The Train to Pakistan for a little while, because right now i'm annoyed.
There are scenes in this book which are completely unnecassary and just there because of the sexual content it.
This is my third book by Mr.Singh and all(most) of his male protagonists annoy the hell out of me and this one was no different, how his sexual encounters with random women are linked to the history of Delhi, i can not understand.
This character disturb me at so many points like-
1-" That bloody bitch! i muttered, WHAT SHE NEED IS TO BE PUT ACROSS THE KNEE, HER JEANS RIPPED OFF AND A FEW HARD SMACKS ON HER LARGE, MELON SIZED BOTTOM" this is a direct quote about a 16-17 yr old girl that our main guy meets.
2-"Facing him is a 14 year old girl with her chemise raised over her shoulder.MY HALF SHUT EYES FOCUS ON HER YOUNG BOSOMBUDS" ????? my mind stopped working for a second.
(there are so many more, i couldn't even bother)
Not to mention every single women that this 60 yr old likes to judge that he encounters in his life.
I DESPISED HIM. ( i wished this character was given on-page death tbh)
The history was written in a very interesting way, I was occasionally bored but on most parts it was good.Athough it seemed,some parts were made 'juicier' at some points. How much of the history (told from first person's perspective) that is told is fictional, i do not know, i may have to check that.
I may have to hold The Train to Pakistan for a little while, because right now i'm annoyed.
shom's review against another edition
4.0
Unmatched humour and witticism, added in cusp of a describing the history of a timeless city : Delhi.
With bouts of death, violence and sex(read: much much more), it perhaps describes the city, as it is.
Right from the start of the Pandava's Indraprastha till the emergency declared after assassination of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, we see the times and lives of Delhi and it’s people through eyes of characters : few known, rest….lost in the pages of history of glamour and decay. The last novel that portrayed Delhi with this much picturesque hypnotism before me was Rabishankar Bal’s Dozakhnama.
Though they are miles apart in their composition, the times of Ghalib and Aurangzeb to comes in, and I can’t say which was the best. That much is the power of the writing in both of these two novels. Characters inhibiting the tale, tell tales of their own, with their own accord and POV, often contradicting, occasionally agreeing to the same thing, and the reader is torn, to decide who is right? (If that you do, I mean). Most of the story revolves around the Mughals, Sikhs and the Britishers, who had their seats and achievements/downfalls in and around the great city. History sometimes repeats itself. Some other times, it creates itself, on its own. All this information, this knowledge, is so beautifully put in a contemporary way, with a sarcastic wand : from what we were and what we have turned into now, as if, if you put up a clearer lens, all you would see the shadows of the past ancestors within us. The randy irony and sexotica, the butchery and violence, the betrayals and loyalty’s all comes and goes and leave out their imprints. The author doesn't leaves out any opportunity to jab at the current scenario of achievements and modernity that we, as Indians boast to achieve. That is why, the author had explored the perspective of the opponent parties, while describing each event. In between, you get the exotic and wacky character of Bhagmati thrown. She’s there just to carry on the timeless tell, and used as if to offer a brief overdue from the long tracks of impending personalities that makes us their story heard.
It’s a must read for any historical-fiction lover. I would leave my review with the most impactful para in the novel.(Though you would get a handful in each of the chapters, no doubt!).
One, that a senile architect tells about, to his descendants, when asked if he feels any sense of pride in the achievement that India has achieved :
“‘Indeed I do. Also a sense of foreboding. We are amongst the poorest of the poor, the most ignorant
of ignoramuses of the world. We breed like rabbits. Soon we will be more than we can feed, clothe,
or shelter. Then we will resume fighting each other like dogs on a dung heap. We are also the
corruptest of the corrupt. Everyone from the Prime Minister down to the poorest-paid police
constable has his price. And we are more prone to violence than the most violent races of the world.
What we saw in the summer and autumn of 1947 when we slew each other like goats unveiled our
real nature. You will see much worse in the years to come. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs,
Buddhists will go on killing each other in greater numbers. Your Gandhi and his ahimsa are as dead
as .... as dead as .... Whatever the dead bird is called.’
‘Dodo.’
‘That’s right! Dead as the dodo.’
‘So are people like you. The last of your tribe will go with you. India is a great nation, that is the
truth. And you may or may not know that our national motto is truth will forever be
triumphant–Satyamev Jayate.”
With bouts of death, violence and sex(read: much much more), it perhaps describes the city, as it is.
Right from the start of the Pandava's Indraprastha till the emergency declared after assassination of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, we see the times and lives of Delhi and it’s people through eyes of characters : few known, rest….lost in the pages of history of glamour and decay. The last novel that portrayed Delhi with this much picturesque hypnotism before me was Rabishankar Bal’s Dozakhnama.
Though they are miles apart in their composition, the times of Ghalib and Aurangzeb to comes in, and I can’t say which was the best. That much is the power of the writing in both of these two novels. Characters inhibiting the tale, tell tales of their own, with their own accord and POV, often contradicting, occasionally agreeing to the same thing, and the reader is torn, to decide who is right? (If that you do, I mean). Most of the story revolves around the Mughals, Sikhs and the Britishers, who had their seats and achievements/downfalls in and around the great city. History sometimes repeats itself. Some other times, it creates itself, on its own. All this information, this knowledge, is so beautifully put in a contemporary way, with a sarcastic wand : from what we were and what we have turned into now, as if, if you put up a clearer lens, all you would see the shadows of the past ancestors within us. The randy irony and sexotica, the butchery and violence, the betrayals and loyalty’s all comes and goes and leave out their imprints. The author doesn't leaves out any opportunity to jab at the current scenario of achievements and modernity that we, as Indians boast to achieve. That is why, the author had explored the perspective of the opponent parties, while describing each event. In between, you get the exotic and wacky character of Bhagmati thrown. She’s there just to carry on the timeless tell, and used as if to offer a brief overdue from the long tracks of impending personalities that makes us their story heard.
It’s a must read for any historical-fiction lover. I would leave my review with the most impactful para in the novel.(Though you would get a handful in each of the chapters, no doubt!).
One, that a senile architect tells about, to his descendants, when asked if he feels any sense of pride in the achievement that India has achieved :
“‘Indeed I do. Also a sense of foreboding. We are amongst the poorest of the poor, the most ignorant
of ignoramuses of the world. We breed like rabbits. Soon we will be more than we can feed, clothe,
or shelter. Then we will resume fighting each other like dogs on a dung heap. We are also the
corruptest of the corrupt. Everyone from the Prime Minister down to the poorest-paid police
constable has his price. And we are more prone to violence than the most violent races of the world.
What we saw in the summer and autumn of 1947 when we slew each other like goats unveiled our
real nature. You will see much worse in the years to come. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs,
Buddhists will go on killing each other in greater numbers. Your Gandhi and his ahimsa are as dead
as .... as dead as .... Whatever the dead bird is called.’
‘Dodo.’
‘That’s right! Dead as the dodo.’
‘So are people like you. The last of your tribe will go with you. India is a great nation, that is the
truth. And you may or may not know that our national motto is truth will forever be
triumphant–Satyamev Jayate.”