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Delhi Mostly Harmless : One Womans Vision of the City
... Nobody who lives there, nobody at all, has much good to say about Delhi. Along with Milton Keynes, Detroit and Purgatory, Delhi is one of the worlds great unloved destinations.
So when Elizabeth Chatterjee makes her way from the cool hum of Oxford to the demented June heat of heat of Delhi to research her PhD, she find herself both baffled and curious about the je ne sais quoi of this city of graveyards and tombstones.
As flanur and sagacious resident, Liz takes us through the serpentine power structures, the idyll, the bullshit peeling layer after layer of the citys skin to reveal its aspirations, its insecurity, its charm and finally its urban dissonance.
Uncannily perceptive, predictive and hysterical, Delhi Mostly Harmless puts a firm finger on the electric pulse of Delhi
So when Elizabeth Chatterjee makes her way from the cool hum of Oxford to the demented June heat of heat of Delhi to research her PhD, she find herself both baffled and curious about the je ne sais quoi of this city of graveyards and tombstones.
As flanur and sagacious resident, Liz takes us through the serpentine power structures, the idyll, the bullshit peeling layer after layer of the citys skin to reveal its aspirations, its insecurity, its charm and finally its urban dissonance.
Uncannily perceptive, predictive and hysterical, Delhi Mostly Harmless puts a firm finger on the electric pulse of Delhi
- GenresNonfiction
296 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 19, 2014
Actual rating- 1.5
I Could/ Did Not Finish the book.
As crisp as the writing is and as interesting as it is to read about your own country from another person's point of view and as much as I would have liked to pick this book up and finish it off once and for all, I simply do not wish to continue with Delhi Mostly Harmless : One Womans Vision of the City. I've been reading it since more than a month now and even the most patient person's patience has a limit. I'm more than hundred percent sure that many people will really like the book but unfortunately, I'm not one of them.
I'd like to thank Random House India for a providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
I Could/ Did Not Finish the book.
As crisp as the writing is and as interesting as it is to read about your own country from another person's point of view and as much as I would have liked to pick this book up and finish it off once and for all, I simply do not wish to continue with Delhi Mostly Harmless : One Womans Vision of the City. I've been reading it since more than a month now and even the most patient person's patience has a limit. I'm more than hundred percent sure that many people will really like the book but unfortunately, I'm not one of them.
I'd like to thank Random House India for a providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
April 5, 2017
While this book has it's moments overall I kept getting the feeling that it was a bit borgeuousie in its tone...there is very little about the actual people of the city and unnecessary chapters on Ipl and rugby teams...also a bit a of a whine and unlike other writers like darymple who took the city to heart I got the feeling that the author was resistant to embrace it...also the way poverty is written about is quite naive and lazy...some clever observations but as someone who has read a lot about the city it failed to keep my attention... In fact the only time I felt the author was happy was at the end when she leaves Delhi and goes back to Oxford,UK eating her favourite cheese again...
Avoidable considering there are so many other good books about Delhi...
Avoidable considering there are so many other good books about Delhi...
September 29, 2025
Here's another book on Delhi from a fearless writer filled with witty remarks, strong statements that leaves many afterthoughts in their wake. A book on Delhi where the bad is outweighed by the good and as a beloved Dilliwalla (as I am) every inch of me wanted to put down this book that overexaggerated the evil—YET I was filled with joy, warmth and embraced Elizabeth Chatterjee's writing as she had embraced the city and the country (to some extent).
No book can ever make me love my beloved Dilli any less.
No book can ever make me love my beloved Dilli any less.
April 17, 2020
The book is revealing at some points but makes very strong statements without much evidence to back it up with. The quotes in the beginning of each chapter and the humor in writing make it a good read.
February 16, 2014
By Elizabeth Chatterjee. Grade B
I have often wondered why people write about cities they dislike so much. Is it because they feel the need to rant to the world about the grave injustice that forced them to live in that city? Or is it to dissuade people around the world from travelling to the said city? While reading this book, I had similar questions running through my mind.
Often when books are written about a particular city, readers are torn into two groups. One which completely, whole-heartedly agrees with the author; and one which vehemently disagrees. Having been born and brought up in Delhi, and lived here all my life, I could not associate it with the city described in the initial pages of the book. I found myself drawn to the second group of readers who would take offence at everything the author has written. Elizabeth Chatterjee’s book gives an uncensored version of Delhi. Part Indian, Chatterjee is as far from her roots as one can be. And when she has to come live in India – Delhi, to be more specific – to complete her PhD, she finds herself baffled and disillusioned.
Extremely well written and candid, Chatterjee has managed to capture every nuance of this city. Be it the troubles one has to find a house, or dealing with a lazy, beedi-chewing maid; from haggling with the auto-wallahs to the Indian men, and their stalker tendencies; from the weather, to the sanitation, and even the traffic, a Delhi-ite would be able to completely relate with this book (though one may not agree with everything).
Often humorous, I found myself laughing at instances that I encounter myself, but never thought to write about it! To quote one,
(quote starts)
“At the entrance of the Metro surfaced an Auntie, one of India’s terrifyingly disapproving older matrons. She was a particularly large example of the species, swaddled in an aggressively green and expensively silken sari. She cast a cold predatory eye over the narrow tube of the carriage. There were no seats. Suddenly, without seeming to move a muscle, she materialized in front of me, and turned in a slow wordless arc, and began to reverse.
For a long moment I stared at a vast onrushing expansion of green. I had a strange sensation of falling, like a skydiver plunging headfirst towards a well-tended lawn. And then she sat on me.”
(quote ends)
However, despite the quirks and humour, I often found the book to be a bit too negative about Delhi. Because honestly, it is not all that bad. Moments after the author would quote a funny incident, she would mention something that would immediately make me want to put the book down.
(quote starts)
“The dusty surrounding tarmac around the Rashtrapati Bhavan is almost empty, but for a smattering of police and the yellow slashes of traffic barricades. The flat roundness of the Indian Parliament lies on one side like a great toothy burger.”(quote ends)
An entire chapter has been dedicated to comparing India to an elephant, and India has been called a mimic, a natural circus animal, a white elephant. Another drawback I would like to point out is that the book often read like a boring report that a CEO would have to go through on a Monday Morning. I would have liked a bit more dialogue, rather than the continuous monologue that the book was.
Being a hard-core Delhi-ite, I may have been a bit biased while reading the book. However, if you wish to get a scrupulous, undisguised and an uncensored guide to living in the city, Delhi, Mostly Harmless is the book for you!
Originally reviewed at Vaultofbooks.com, a close-knit community of fanatical readers. We are looking for perceptive readers who can write well, and we are eager to provide lots of free books in exchange for reviews. Shoot us a mail at contact@vaultofbooks.com
I have often wondered why people write about cities they dislike so much. Is it because they feel the need to rant to the world about the grave injustice that forced them to live in that city? Or is it to dissuade people around the world from travelling to the said city? While reading this book, I had similar questions running through my mind.
Often when books are written about a particular city, readers are torn into two groups. One which completely, whole-heartedly agrees with the author; and one which vehemently disagrees. Having been born and brought up in Delhi, and lived here all my life, I could not associate it with the city described in the initial pages of the book. I found myself drawn to the second group of readers who would take offence at everything the author has written. Elizabeth Chatterjee’s book gives an uncensored version of Delhi. Part Indian, Chatterjee is as far from her roots as one can be. And when she has to come live in India – Delhi, to be more specific – to complete her PhD, she finds herself baffled and disillusioned.
Extremely well written and candid, Chatterjee has managed to capture every nuance of this city. Be it the troubles one has to find a house, or dealing with a lazy, beedi-chewing maid; from haggling with the auto-wallahs to the Indian men, and their stalker tendencies; from the weather, to the sanitation, and even the traffic, a Delhi-ite would be able to completely relate with this book (though one may not agree with everything).
Often humorous, I found myself laughing at instances that I encounter myself, but never thought to write about it! To quote one,
(quote starts)
“At the entrance of the Metro surfaced an Auntie, one of India’s terrifyingly disapproving older matrons. She was a particularly large example of the species, swaddled in an aggressively green and expensively silken sari. She cast a cold predatory eye over the narrow tube of the carriage. There were no seats. Suddenly, without seeming to move a muscle, she materialized in front of me, and turned in a slow wordless arc, and began to reverse.
For a long moment I stared at a vast onrushing expansion of green. I had a strange sensation of falling, like a skydiver plunging headfirst towards a well-tended lawn. And then she sat on me.”
(quote ends)
However, despite the quirks and humour, I often found the book to be a bit too negative about Delhi. Because honestly, it is not all that bad. Moments after the author would quote a funny incident, she would mention something that would immediately make me want to put the book down.
(quote starts)
“The dusty surrounding tarmac around the Rashtrapati Bhavan is almost empty, but for a smattering of police and the yellow slashes of traffic barricades. The flat roundness of the Indian Parliament lies on one side like a great toothy burger.”(quote ends)
An entire chapter has been dedicated to comparing India to an elephant, and India has been called a mimic, a natural circus animal, a white elephant. Another drawback I would like to point out is that the book often read like a boring report that a CEO would have to go through on a Monday Morning. I would have liked a bit more dialogue, rather than the continuous monologue that the book was.
Being a hard-core Delhi-ite, I may have been a bit biased while reading the book. However, if you wish to get a scrupulous, undisguised and an uncensored guide to living in the city, Delhi, Mostly Harmless is the book for you!
Originally reviewed at Vaultofbooks.com, a close-knit community of fanatical readers. We are looking for perceptive readers who can write well, and we are eager to provide lots of free books in exchange for reviews. Shoot us a mail at contact@vaultofbooks.com
June 19, 2015
Crisp and often humorous narration. I found the book pleasantly readable with moments of good insight, and yet I still feel as though it wasn't necessarily worth my time. I might share humorous and relatable sections with some friends, but I don't feel as though this book was worth my time. Probably my ambivalence is a result of this being rather a typical travel book/city tribute. When I enjoyed it most, Chatterjee was crystallizing something I've previously thought about Delhi; there wasn't much she suggested that was new. On the other hand, I've put this book on my "Modern India" shelf because I think it has much to say, if you're very interested in her perspective, about post-liberalization India, the political scene, and definitely India even outside Delhi (though having a mental map of the city helped me a lot). The chronology was a little confused. I got the sense that Chatterjee was combining several trips to Delhi into one narrative and then not telling us exactly what was what just to keep us from getting lost or confused, which is a nice authorial prerogative, but then I wanted more specifics when she referenced specific trends or news events. Also, I think her academic research (electricity) in Delhi would have provided a very interesting arch to her experiences, and yet it makes up a very small percentage of the content of this book.
April 1, 2014
This book is a blunt, honest, humorous and extremely knowledgeable expose of Delhi and it's culture - social, political and economic (these are not mutually exclusive). However it may, probably, only strike a chord with people who will not perceive a critique of a city as a personal indictment. I feel that, in her own way, the writer does the city justice as she describes Delhi's abhorrent yet addictive demeanour that borders on sociopathic callousness avec dollops of charm at unpredictable intervals. The description of the many whorls that comprise the polito-socio-economic paradigms of the capital make it clear that Dilliwallas live in their own preferred dimensions with only a few who may wish to play the liminal at sporadic and rare occasions. To describe the book further would be to spoil it. It is definitely recommended to anyone with a good sense of humour and a curiosity about the city.
January 5, 2015
I read somewhere once "The worst critics of a place are most of the times people who are absolutely in love with it" when I read this book that is what I kept thinking about it because frankly I couldn't think of any other reason why ever Elizabeth Chatterjee would have written this book ;)
She shows us the dark side of Delhi, some pages had me nodding, some pages vehemently disagreeing and some I wanted to disagree but in my heart I knew that it is true. The book has typical British humour which at times you can see blending with the Delhi humour and smile to yourself.
One of my favorite lines from the book
"Jugaad can be a dark art" and I think most people from Delhi become experts in that art....
She shows us the dark side of Delhi, some pages had me nodding, some pages vehemently disagreeing and some I wanted to disagree but in my heart I knew that it is true. The book has typical British humour which at times you can see blending with the Delhi humour and smile to yourself.
One of my favorite lines from the book
"Jugaad can be a dark art" and I think most people from Delhi become experts in that art....
May 7, 2014
Review at A Bookworm’s Musing: http://wp.me/p2J8yh-2AG
Read the book for the perspective of the city from one who has just moved there, and not exactly lived there. The book will be, I feel, received with mixed outcomes by those who are part of the city, but in general, I liked the witty narration, the cover design and yes, most definitely the title of the book.
Read the book for the perspective of the city from one who has just moved there, and not exactly lived there. The book will be, I feel, received with mixed outcomes by those who are part of the city, but in general, I liked the witty narration, the cover design and yes, most definitely the title of the book.
August 11, 2016
A very interesting read http://www.anureviews.com/delhi-mostl...
November 20, 2016
I enjoyed reading it after visiting Delhi, and many of what she has said seems true about my own experiences there. She describes it with wit and some sarcasm quite well.
September 2, 2017
I expected this book to be about an outsider's experience in the city. What it turned out to be gyaan about the city from an outsider for other outsiders. It's a book for those who know zilch about India.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews