PERPETUAL CITY: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF DELHI

“A heartfelt love letter
to Delhi that is part history, part family memoir and part indignant call to
arms: Why do we tolerate the neglect of India’s greatest city, asks Mala
Singh. More importantly, she brilliantly shows why we should care and how we
need to learn to value the nation’s extraordinary capital city.” –
William Dalrymple Capital to successive empires and the independent Indian
republic, Delhi is finally coming into its own as the nation’s first city in
the twenty-first century. In so doing, it has left behind once and future
contenders for the title – Bombay, Madras, Calcutta. How did this small
settlement, founded in the lee of an ancient range of hills in eighth century
by a Tomar Rajput chief called Suraj Pal, become one of the world’s great
cities, home to nearly twenty million people, witness to the rise and fall of
empires and dynasts and eccentrics as magnificent and notable as the Tomar
Chauhans, the Mamluks, the Khiljis, the Tughlaks, the Sayyids, the Lodis, the
Mughals, the Nehrus, the Gandhis and dozens of others too numerous to count.
Drawing upon her unparalleled knowledge of the city she has spent most of her
life in, Malvika Singh gives us a book that reveals the pith and essence of
Delhi through the memorable people who lived (and live) in it, its great
buildings, its extraordinary food, its unforgettable music and the centuries
of blood and history that have seeped into every square inch of its soil. Key
Features: A new biography of Delhi by a major author after nearly a decade. A
hard-hitting expose of the various influences coming together to destroy one
of the world’s greatest cities. Bound to get wide media coverage, the author
will be appearing in an half-hour interview with CNN-IBN’s Karan Thapar. Will
be widely excerpted and reviewed by various national newspapers and
magazines. Is a remarkable evocation of Delhi’s history through the
centuries, as well as a deeply personal account of growing up in the city’s
vibrant cultural scene. Malvika Singh is the author of more than a dozen
books and publisher of the iconic magazine, Seminar, founded by her parents,
Raj and Romesh Thapar.