Manish Tully: Book Review

Good Book- Too much Religious Traffic  My personal thoughts about the book: Eraly must have done extensive research before writing this book. A good book, but I must say; its too extensive & bit dull. The book starts well with early Mugal Era, but as the book progresses towards era of Akbar, the book takes a colour of a religious journal rather than a historic one. There is too much of religious traffic in the book. Eraly had written too much about the religion propounded by Akbar and about how Aurangzeb ridiculed Hindus during his reign. The Maratha saga given in the book, according to my observations, is somewhat a disconnect. When the author was writing about Marathas’ somewhere or the other he forgets to connect to the pivotal character of the book i.e. The Mugals and tried to bridge the gap abruptly. The book ends with Aurangzeb, an unexpected end to the story. Eraly could have done justice to the readers if he would have curtailed large part about this

 Delhi: Story of Ruins This is an excellent book. WD, through this book, has made Delhi ruins speak its own story. As one progresses through the book you find this book more and more captivating and the reader finds himself in the lanes and bye-lanes of city area of Delhi and at mazaars. WD tried well to keep bit of humor by quoting Mr. and Mrs. Puri, typical Punjabis of Delhi. A must read for history lovers esp. about Delhi. Cheers, Manish Tully

Delhi- its culture This is a great book by A Ali. It is a simple book which goes on to describe about life in Delhi and of its subjects. This book captures life story of one Mir Nihal- his sons, begum and concubines and his redundancy in old age. Yes, the book also captures bit of English Raj and coronation of King in Delhi. Book beautifully describes the enthusiasm of people of Delhi at the time of coronation of English King coupled with saddened hearts of a few who have seen Great Moguls coming out of majestic Red Fort of Delhi, which was replaced by the British King. The main part of novel revolves around life story of Mir Nihal and his son Asghsar.  Overall a good read. Cheers,