Finding Delhi: A Book on Loss and Renewal in the Megacity

Finding Delhi

Edited by Bharati Chaturvedi, Penguin Books India presents to the people of Delhi–and to anyone who knows Delhi to be her/his own–Finding Delhi: Loss and Renewal in the Megacity. The edited volume brings together voices that offer a kaleidoscope view of the morphing, knotted city even as it is simultaneously experienced. Finding Delhi is an unprecedented chronicling of contemporary Delhi—the nature of contemporary its reinvention and the effects of this personality shift on those who experience it. It is an examination relevant to all urban spaces being re-engineered on the road to ‘world-classness’.

A century after the British built New Delhi as the capital of India, it is in the middle of furious sometimes haphazard, growth in a race against time to become a ‘world-class’ city. As the metropolis is re-imagined, dug up and built upon, the lives of its twenty million inhabitants, and the ways in which they negotiate the sprawling city, are also changing. Finding Delhi examines the nature of this transformation: what kind of spaces and opportunities are becoming available to some of the twenty million, and how much is being taken away from others. Fourteen full-and- part-time residents of Delhi, ranging from urban planners to informal-sector workers, write about issues as urgent and diverse as public transport, the state of Yamuna, women and the megacity, housing rights for the poor, recycling and recyclers, shopping malls and the officially sanctioned campaign against street vendors and the homeless ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Bharati Chaturvedi is an environmentalist and writer based in Delhi. She is a co-founder of an NGO, Chintan, which works to increase environmental justice and reduce ecological footprints. She writes a column, ‘Earthwatch’ for the Hindustan Times, and blogs with the Huffington Post. She is also a writer and a critic on contemporary art practice in India. Other contributors of the volume include prominent names such as Amita Baviskar, Anshu Sharma, Harsh Mander, Jai Prakash Chowdhury (Santu), Kalpana Viswanath, Lalit Batra, Manoj Misra, Rajendra Ravi, Ram Shabad, Somnath Batabyal, Suresh Kumar, Suresh Kanojia, V. Madamiel and Vinay Gidwani. The volume is priced at Rs. 399/-

For more information, and for review copies, excerpts and interviews with the contributor/ editor, contact:
Smriti Khanna-Mehra at 011 4613 1410, smriti.khanna@in.penguingroup.com

Aastha Kukreti

Aastha Kukreti holds a Master’s degree in Environment Management and her areas of expertise range from waste management, pollution ecology, green audits, ecofeminism, environmental equity and social justice.

One thought on “Finding Delhi: A Book on Loss and Renewal in the Megacity

  1. Very well managed blog. Very informative too. Glad to see a blog for environmental concerns etc on Delhi, as I am also a resident of Delhi.

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