The modern sprawling metropolis Delhi is likened to a wealthy trauma patient in the latest book penned by Rana
Dasgupta which paints a vivid portrait of the capital.
Arriving in one of the fastest growing cities in the world with just one suitcase, Canterbury born Dasgupta made
the move to India fourteen years ago to be with his lover.
With no intention of staying long, he was entranced by the capital- the world's second most populated city which
became his home and the inspiration behind his first work of non-fiction.
Capital, is the second piece by the author who won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize in 2010 for best book for his
debut novel Solo.
Dasgupta who was in London last week to promote the book, told Eastern Eye he likened the region to a trauma patient
after swathes of disturbed Indians settled there after the partition in 1947.
"The partition was the moment that marked the personality of the city and the feeling that that event is not worked
out in the life of the city.
"That whole community of people in a way established the contemporary culture of the city, it was a British city
before then.
"They'd lost property and businesses and money, they'd seen death on a very large scale and there had been very
large amounts of rapes and abductions of women, so when they arrived they were a fairly traumatized population and
then they started rebuilding their lives.
"They rebuilt them with a great single mindedness, they didn't really talk about it (the partition)."
To read the full article, subscribe to the digital edition of Eastern Eye for only £20 a year; see www.easterneye.eu/subscribe for details. To subscribe to the Eastern Eye newsletter, go to www.easterneye.eu. You can alsopick up a copy of the paper at your local newsagent.
