• Speaking Tiger
    Speaking Tiger
Basti & Durbar

Basti & Durbar

Speaking Tiger

Buy this 448-page paperback edition by Rakhshanda Jalil, today!

  • Publish Date

    6 Sep, 2025

  • Publisher

    Speaking Tiger

  • Type

    Paperback

  • Dimensions

    US Trade (6 in - 9 in)

  • Pages

    448 Pages

About This Book

They say Delhi belongs to no one. For it seems everyone who lives in it calls someplace else home, from its slum dwellers to its ruling classes. As if its non-identity were its identity. Rakhshanda Jalil, who calls Delhi her home without reservation, searches for this invisible city, through stories—about Dilli, New Delhi, and everything in between. In the thirty-two stories in this collection, there is a city that pushes through in its unbearable heat and cold and a city that plays rummy and talks golf at the Gymkhana Club; a phoenix city built by emperors and imperialists, by poets, by labourers, traders and fixers; a city that survived the Partition and shelters its victims; and a city of lovers and dreamers, but also of thick-skinned, cynical politicians and babus. Among the writers featured in this majestic anthology are legends and new voices—Khushwant Singh, Bhisham Sahni, Rashid Jahan, Mohan Rakesh, Gulzar, Kartar Singh Duggal, Krishna Sobti, Keki Daruwalla, M. Mukundan,......

About The Author

Rakhshanda Jalil is a multi-award-winning translator, writer and literary historian. She has published over 25 books and written over 50 academic papers and essays. Her books include Love in the Time of Hate: In the Mirror of Urdu; Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers Movement in Urdu; a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan: A Rebel and her Cause; and a translation of Intizar Hussain’s The Sea Lies Ahead.

Speaking Tiger
Speaking Tiger

One of India's most acclaimed independent publishing companies.

Website
Basti & Durbar
Rakhshanda Jalil
Basti & Durbar
Rakhshanda Jalil
© 2025 Speaking Tiger ∙ Terms ∙ Privacy ∙ Support ∙ Website