New Delhi, 2007

One of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, they say people have lived here for more than four thousand five hundred years. Indraprastha to the Pandavas, it has since seen the Sultanate, gone through the Khiljis, Tughluqs, Sayyids and Lodis. It was Shahjahanabad for its seventh avatar and since 1911, became the capital for the Raj. Through the centuries it had a distinct identity, the dynasties that ruled from here lent it an unmistakable touch. Now though, it is the National Capital Territory of Delhi and it would be difficult for anyone to put a finger on what really defines this great city.
Not to say that Delhi is without character. Having lived here all my life, I love it like no other. It is a far more "livable" city compared to the other three metros, and I'm sure nobody will disagree. What I'm looking for is to to be able to "label" this city the way one is able to do with Bombay, Madras and Calcutta(I prefer the old names, they help to make my point clearer). Bombay's diversity is legendary, but its Parsee dominated culture and "financial capital" status, manifests itself in a pronounced buzz that is quite unique to the city. Madras and Calcutta are, by proxy, very easy to stereotype, because of the large "indigenous" population of Tamils and Bengalis respectively. Though a decent contingent, in the latter, of Marwaadis, lends Calcutta some semblance of variety.
Delhi though, is a different case altogether. Its diversity is grossly underestimated and its dynamics never quite fascinate the way Bombay's seem to. People readily assume the Punjabi influence to be pervasive, but equally readily tend to forget, that for centuries, this was essentially a Muslim city, built almost entirely by Muslim rulers. The more one thinks about it, the more difficult it is to pinpoint a certain defining feature of this city. You do get a sense of being somewhere in the north of India, but it becomes quite a task to come to grips with what this city is all about. The Delhi of Rajinder Nagar and Raja Garden is so vastly different from the Delhi of Khan Market and Jor Bagh that one can easily be forgiven for thinking these are two distinct cities under the same government.
It is not just the economic disparities among colonies, every city in India will invariably have that as a salient feature. It is the complete difference in character, philosophy, feel and atmosphere within the confines of this city, stretching from Dwarka to Rohini to Sarita Vihar to Shahdra. It is simply not possible to decisively say that there is any one particular feature that might be common to these areas, or even its inhabitants. What or Who is it then that really defines Delhi? Is it the school teacher from Okhla? The lawyer from West Patel Nagar? The businessman from Model Town? or the computer engineer from Malviya Nagar?
William Dalrymple writes beautifully about Delhi, in his classic, City of Djinns, but you cannot help get the feeling that what he is describing is only a very small part of this city; one that is somehow, desperately, clinging on to its past. Dalrymple, understandably, has nothing to say about the Delhi of South Extension and Nehru Place, of Saket and Mayur Vihar, given their being devoid of the kind of romance he so eloquently evokes in all else that he addresses in the book. We would be in denial, were we to ignore the fact that it does not suffice anymore to ascribe to Delhi a Muslim past, Punjabi influence and the Mughals' and Lutyens' architecture.
Delhi is, to use a cliche, a melting pot, with some very pronounced flavors that seem unduly accentuated.
You will find in Delhi Bengalis and Jats, Kashmiris and Madrasis, Marwaadis and Biharis, Baniyas and Brahmins, Christians and Jains, Jacobs and Palkhiwaalas, Mishras and Roys, Abdullahs and D'Souzas. You could stay in a Marwaadi household, have a Nepali servant, a Garhwali driver, a Bengali doctor, a Rajput watchman, a Bihari tutor, Parsees for neighbours and South Indian for lunch. Try as you might, you will fail if you try to define what this city is all about. It might have been possible in the past, but today, it would be a futile attempt, to say the least.
Delhi is in many ways, becoming another Bombay, but it clearly lacks a distinctive character that we could use to define it. The Punjabi influence must certainly not be underestimated, but it would stretching the facts to say that Delhi is primarily a Punjabi city. The minorities are each in numbers large enough so as to affect the overall feel of the city, and you will run into people from all walks of life, religions, regions, caste and creed, in just one day about town.
It is unusual for a capital city so historic and great, to lack a defining feature or unmistakable characteristic, but Delhi will never be what London, Paris or Rome are. It is a city that is being continually morphed into something else, it is dynamic in ways that we do not quite comprehend and it will take its own course to realize itself in terms of a distinct character. We must wait patiently to see how things play out, and be satisfied that we live in a great city that is in a rare, but prolonged period of transition.