This piece is the first in a series of reflections on and conversations with interpreters who have embedded themselves in the city they translate to others. Their imageries and imaginations provide ways of seeing the past and present of the city as also forms of caring about the city to future generations of interpreters.
Imagine yourself in the lanes of 18th-century Delhi, playing a pipe as you are walking along and getting invited to a popular coffee haunt in the city. This is the arrival scene of James Allen (b. 1734), a ‘celebrated’ Northumberland piper, as described in an 1828 book on his travels and adventures (A New, Improved,… Continue reading One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
For all my years in Delhi, my encounter with Jantar Mantar has been as a landmark to guide autowallas, a road where protests take place in Delhi or as a locality to have a cheap snack at the South Indian Snack Centre aka Kutty’s, popularly identified as the Jantar Mantar South Indian joint. I had… Continue reading Becoming of and in Jantar Mantar
Chiragh Dilli 