Walking the Walk
The nineteenth century French poet Baudelaire coined the term 'flâneur'--meaning a "gentleman stroller of city streets." He derived it from the French masculine noun flâneur, basically meaning a "stroller." In Baudelaire's use the flâneur became a character who was something more than a mere stroller, broadened to mean somebody participating in, and portraying, his city. A flâneur played a dual role in city life--simultaneously a part of and apart from--combining sociological, anthropological, literary and historical ideas of the relationship between the individual and the masses.
Sam Miller, the author of the book Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity (Delhi: Penguin Viking; 2008), was born in London in 1962, and went on to study History at Cambridge University, and Politics at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. He joined the BBC's World Service, was posted in Delhi, later becoming Managing Editor, South Asia after a stint as head of its Urdu service. He currently lives in Delhi, running media training projects for the BBC World Service. He has also worked as a reporter in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Balkans and Northern Ireland.
Miller is a self-styled flâneur. But he is modest and humble about his "eccentric" hobby and isn't given to flights of fancy. While in the poem 'London,' Blake strolls through a decadent, decaying city like a prophetic wraith, and in 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge,' Wordsworth stares at his city dazed as if in an opiate dream, Sam Miller has both of his feet firmly stuck to the ground of the city he experiences, writing with originality and humour. He is at once part of and apart from Delhi, the megacity. "My size, my colour, my gait, my accent, my demeanour, my body language, my facial expressions mark me out as a foreigner. And I always will be a foreigner, however long I live here. The more Indian I wish to become, the more eccentric I appear. Because, unlike most foreigners here, I speak and read some Hindi, I appear even more unusual."
Delhi is one of the world's largest cities, a teeming metropolis with a population growth rate unmatched by the other such megacities. Perhaps because it's also one of the oldest of the world's megacities, its modern development has been largely ignored. Sam Miller set out to discover the real Delhi, a city he describes as being "India's dreamtown--and its purgatory." His method of exploration was more than eccentric; he started at Connaught Place, spiraled outwards till Gurgaon. Why spirals? Because he had been "staring at a book about Shahjanabad--now known as old Dehi…full of strange diagrams about how cities were formed. Muslim cities, I read, were formed in concentric circles. And there was a little drawing--six perfect earthly circles, orbiting around a central mosque. How could I visit each circle, and move between these circles? By spiraling. A closely packed spiral is, after all, hard to distinguish from a series of concentric circles." After a little digression on motifs and Louise Bourgeoise, the artist who exalted the spiral as "an attempt to control chaos," Miller "found (his) device and metaphor." The spiral mode of walking ensured he didn't follow the set patterns of the usual travel writer visiting landmarks and writing textbook history. After this initial discovery, Miller made well-planned walking trips in Delhi, covering, and un-covering, all its hidden nooks and crannies and uncelebrated destinations. His open and inquisitive mind made light and easy play of some of the challenging sights and times during his many walks.
Miller's book is packed with knowledge, but subtly enough, in a conversational tone and pace, so that it takes a while for a reader to realize that s/he's doing some serious learning, on just not Delhi but a variety of subjects: history, math, pop culture, the art of reporting. Miller measured the floor length of a Metro coach by sprawling over it; he mimed the act of a Sashtang Pranam devotee; he measured the depth of a manhole by falling into it vertically. In his book there is no telling what's going to happen next, and with his whatever-may-come attitude and thirst to experience and uncover, it is of little wonder that he discovers Delhi like nobody has done it before. He refrains from making social commentary but the social conditions of those living in abject poverty do not escape his eye or pen. His observations are factual and non-judgmental, with a healthy dose of humour and wit. He describes the Delhi he sees-- a fast, shining metropolis riddled with those inhabitants who live in a shadowy poverty-ridden world. And Miller maintains his balance in portraying the best and worst of both worlds. He certainly sets himself apart from other non-fiction travel writers. As I came to the end of the book, the line from the Dhammapada, the best known text of the Theravada canon, came to my mind: "Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone."
Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity will appeal to all readers: from those interested in learning about a city, its history and by-lanes, to the more casual reader wanting to be entertained by a sharp and quick wit. It hardly needs mentioning that the book will also be of abiding interest to fellow flâneurs.
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