Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity

This is an extraordinary portrait of one of the world's largest cities. Sam Miller sets out to discover the real Delhi, a city he describes as being 'India's dreamtown–and its purgatory'. He treads the city streets, making his way through Delhi and its suburbs, visiting its less celebrated destinations–Nehru Place, Pitampura, Rohini and Gurgaon–that most writers ignore. Miller's quest is the here and now, the unexpected, the ignored and the eccentric. All the obvious ports of call–the ancient monuments, the imperial buildings and the celebrities of modern Delhi–make only passing appearances. Through his encounters with Delhi's people–from a professor of astrophysics to a crematorium attendant, from ragpickers to members of the Police Brass Band–Miller creates a richly entertaining portrait of what Delhi means to its residents, and of what the city is becoming. Miller is, like so many of the people he meets, a migrant in one of the world's fastest-growing megapolises and the Delhi he depicts is one who future concerns us all. Miller possesses an intense curiosity; he has an infallible eye for life's diversities, for all the marvellous and sublime moments that illuminate people's lives. This is a generous, original, humorous portrait of a great city; one which unerringly locates the humanity beneath the mundane, the unsung and the unfamiliar.