Delhi

Adventures in a Megacity

Sam Miller

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780312612375
• eBook ISBN: 9781429963855
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

A provocative portrait of one of the world's largest cities, delving behind the tourist facade to illustrate the people and places beyond the realms of the conventional travelogue
Sam Miller set out to discover the real Delhi, a city he describes as "India's dreamtown—and its purgatory." He treads the city streets, making his way through the city and its suburbs, visiting its less celebrated destinations—Nehru Place, Rohini, Ghazipur, and Gurgaon—which most writers and travelers ignore. His quest is the here and now, the unexpected, the overlooked, and the eccentric. All the obvious ports of call make appearances: the ancient monuments, the imperial buildings, and the celebrities of modern Delhi. But it is through his encounters with Delhi's people—from a professor of astrophysics to a crematorium attendant, from ragpickers to members of a police brass band—that Miller creates this richly entertaining portrait of what Delhi means to its residents, and of what the city is becoming.
Miller, like so many of the people he meets, is a migrant in one of the world's fastest growing megapolises, and the Delhi he depicts is one whose future concerns us all. He possesses an intense curiosity; he has an infallible eye for life's diversities, for all the marvelous and sublime moments that illuminate people's lives. This is a generous, original, humorous portrait of a great city; one that unerringly locates the humanity beneath the mundane, the unsung, and the unfamiliar.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Prologue
• Chapter One: In which the Author is dazzled by the Metro, finds a cure for haemorrhoids and turns the tables on an unscrupulous shoeshine man
• Chapter Two: In which the Author explores the mysteries of the sodomitic gerund, monastic nudity and geocaching
• Chapter Three: In which the Author is spat at, flirted with and eventually beheaded
• Chapter Four: In which the Author encounters a digital Mahatma, unravels the mystery of Stella of Mudge and engages in solvent abuse
• Chapter Five: In which the Author discovers a celluloid wardrobe, is described as a wanker and meets some bestial shoe-cleaners
• Chapter Six: In which the Author expectorates a carrot, meets an asthmatic goat and identifies a nappy thief
• Chapter Seven: In which the Author rediscovers Tintin, prepares for the Olympics and locates the Hand of God
• Chapter Eight: In which the Author is accused of queue-jumping, delivers a discourse on Mozart and considers the best way of disposing of a dead body
• Chapter Nine: In which the Author visits Ludlow Castle, learns the meaning of choledocholithotomy and almost buys a packet of condoms
• Chapter Ten: In which the Author tries to break into jail, falls into a manhole and encounters several tiny terrorists
• Chapter Eleven: In which the Author is phlebotomized, meets a human yo-yo and avoids the cannibals of Noida
• Chapter Twelve: In which the Author climbs a malodorous mountain, reflects on poverty and hope and falls at the feet of King George V
• Chapter Thirteen: In which the Author is chased by killer pigs, meets the ‘Magnet Man’ of West Delhi and has a doleful wander through the Millennium City
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Copyright Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Notes
• Copyright Page