[Reader-list] 3RD posting

[sidharth srinivasan]

Dear Fellows,
                    my progress report has been delayed owing to a
grand irony - the Indian Institute of Technology (where I stay) server
was down for the last two days and its only now that I have been able
to get the past month off my chest...its no coincidence that we
lovingly refer to the institution as the Institute of Indian
Technology.

In the course of digging up information regarding my project I was
told by an old college friend about a small, innocuous-looking book
called "The Delhi that No-One Knows" by R.V. Smith. Apparently the
book was out of print but by a queer quirk of fate I was able to lay
my hands on it. Was it irony(again) that I bumped into my friend after
a gap of over 4 years at Neemrana, where the re-designed turrets and
bowers and especially the nearby "bauli" (well) seem to be crying out
loud for some peace and quiet, I don't know?

Coming back to Mr Smith's text - it is a treasure trove of anecdote
and little-known fact about the capital's past  - by a gentleman who
has evidently spent many a day wandering about by foot and DTC. Some
of the stories, for example that of a churail(banshee) outside Delhi
Gate, a White lady who appears outside Kashmere Gate and the many
palaces Feroz tughlaq erected for his many mistresses, are truly
bizarre and described with great affection for the past of the city.

I myself, after reading portions of the book, visited some nearby
mausoleums adjacent to Green Park Mkt. and Aurobindo Place Mkt. with
my F-3 at hand. I am struck by these beautiful constructions that
exist cheek by jowl with affluent residential colonies and markets and
yet no one knows the names of those buried there. The placards outside
these tombs declare them to be protected monuments by the ASI but no
background and needless to add no names are mentioned.

Certainly the tombs belong to noblemen of repute or minor royalty, but
if that were the case there should have been proof of the same. I
wonder if the people residing in the vicinity sleep peacefully at
night, or are they disturbed by spirits of the past 'dying' to make
their presence felt after all these centuries.

A man has spread a mattress in the lawns of one of the tombs and is
having a siesta while nearby there is a taxi stand, a tea-stall, a
dhobi, and of course the incessant buzz of traffic. I am not even an
armchair historian yet these spots seem to have some crazy allure
which invites one, beckons one to freeze time and be still.

Of course, the romantic in me wants anecdote and myth where there is
amour-fou involved, or something akin to it. But the fact is that
countless couples must have made out at these places, hidden away from
the glare of society, yet bang in the thick of it!

I have also begun compiling a list of as many inscriptions and
etchings marked into the walls and facades of these buildings as I
can. They will come in handy while scripting.  Some great examples of
amour-fou in the cinema (asides from the Romeo Juliets and Heer
Ranjhas) that come to mind are Leonard Castle's The Honeymoon Killers,
Arturo Ripstein's Deep crimson (based on the same story of the
lonelyheart killers), Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (Kate
Winslet's first) and of course - our very own Qayamat se Qayamat Tak,
Amir Khan's first feature as leading man. Was it a coincidence that
Mansoor Khan chose Delhi as the city where the star-crossed lovers
live? I don't think so.

I have also zeroed in on one of the leads for my proposed photo roman,
the female lead to be more exact. I hope to have more info for your
benefit next time round.

All the best,
SIDHARTH

--
MR. SIDHARTH SRINIVASAN
Reel Illusion Films
New Delhi/Mumbai
India