Every person has a particular look by which it is easy for others to recognise him or her instantly. Officially this 'look' is called identity that is reduced to certain measurable and checkable features. But it is much more than this.

The same I guess can be said about a city. Each city has a look. So has our capital city of Delhi. It has people, roads and most importantly buildings that outlast humans. If one looks close enough, the buildings tell us stories and often of drama enacted not so long back. The 'Khooni Darwaza', for example is hardly noticed by hundreds of men and women who pass it daily. How many stop to think that this was the place where the sons of Bahadurshah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor were hanged by a British army officer just some time prior to the transfer of sovereignty of India to the British crown? Why did he choose the barbarous path of putting them to death?

The Mughals were the rulers of India before the British took over. They have left their buildings which give us an idea of the lifestyles that they led. Before them the Surs, the Lodis, the Tughlaks and the Mameluks and the Rajputs like Prithviraj. I am sure all these rulers left their stamp on the people whose descendents we are. Therefore it is certain that we carry some signs of the influence they exerted and which forms an integral part of our characters as we rush into the 21st century, economic reforms and picture ourselves as a powerful nation of the future.

It is my intention through this blog to discover this identity of Delhi and therefore of us Indians.