A Mumbaikar takes a dig at Delhi, where my family’s from, in a long-running intranational rivalry (thanks, Amardeep). It’s more bare-knuckled than Suketu Mehta’s usual measured style, I like.
Most Indians think about Delhi as a place where women are never completely safe, where the pollution is a large mattress over the city in the winter, and where crazed ministers’ sons pull out guns at the slightest provocation… [Link]
Of course, many Dilliwale think of Delhi quite prosaically as home, and of Bombay as debauchery central: gangsters, bar girls and filmi melodrama. For those stereotypes, we can thank Mr. Mehta 
Many Indians, especially in the Northeast, consider it the citadel of the new Indian imperialism… Bombay and Delhi, in particular, have never quite adjusted to the fact that they share the same country. They are India’s New York and Washington, tolerating each other…When people say nice things about Delhi, it is usually about North Delhi–a very Indian city, with Punjabi families living in ramshackle houses with multiple new additions, sitting on cots under tubelights thick with insects and the lizards feasting on them… [Link]
Or those compliments are about Delhi’s new subway.
I’ve spent many pleasant hours in barsaatis drinking cheap rum with expensively educated friends. And I’ve gone to many a cocktail party at Problem Row… the World Bank, the United Nations… Save the Children, where everybody discusses what problem they specialise in. “I’m in malaria, what about you?”…
Delhi, unlike Bombay, is not an island; people can live very far from their inferiors… I came to think of Delhi as an Endless City… When it is very quiet you can hear the screams of the slaughter of Timur the Lame, blending into the screams of the slaughter of the Sikhs just 21 years ago. [Link]
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p>Melodramatic much? And when it’s quiet in Bombay, you can hear the whine of starlets. It’s blood-curdling, I tell you.
Here’s more on Timur Leng / Tamerlane, the sacking of Delhi and Timur’s capital city, Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan).
Thanks for the links on Timur. What surprising is how easily he entered Delhi without much resistance.
Oh that is completely sooo off reality. Firstly the word “quiet” no longer exists in any Bombayites dictionary. And secondly the only noises amongst all you hear in Bombay are the whines of starlets.
DELHI FOREVER!
Fighting back for my home. Clearly, Mr. Mehta has never:
Listened to the Qawalli singers at Amir Khusrau’s Dargah
Eaten at Parantha Wala Gali
Engaged in teenage making out at the impossibly beautiful Delhi ridge
Argued with a fabian socialist at the India International Center, and gone out for subsidized rs. 30 scotch afterwards
Partied at the old-school Ghungroos
Seen Mehrauli, or the Qutub minar
Trolled for parties in Noida, or Patparganj, or Punjabi Bagh, loud bhangra, playing one’s car
Beaten the Modern School in a well fought game of hockey
Delhi is not without its issues, but is still an incredibly charming, subtle city.
What is wrong with all these Bombaywallahs? Why can’t they just keep themselves busy writing endless accounts of their wonderful, cosmpolitan, uber-urban, yadda, yadda city. Just lay off my city, will ya?
Delhi, unlike Bombay, is not an island; people can live very far from their inferiors…
OK…wait a minute. I think that this speaks volumes of Delhi’s (a) cultural hangups, (b) inferiority complex, and (c) resentment of Mumbai’s preeminence in India.
When it is very quiet you can hear the screams of the slaughter of Timur the Lame, blending into the screams of the slaughter of the Sikhs just 21 years ago.
Is this person hearing voices in his/her head? Perhaps this person needs to consult a Save the Children volunteers who specializes in dimentia in Northern Delhi, where the only sounds you hear are the rhythmic chomping of tube-light insects by the lizard kings.