The premier performing arts institute is
Sangeet Natak Akademi, Firoz Shah Road (tel: (011) 2338 7246; website:
www.sangeetnatak.com), while the arts complex of
Triveni Kala Sangam, Tansen Marg (tel: (011) 2371 8833), contains two galleries devoted to fine art and an open-air and an indoor theater, as well as a sculpture park.
Among the ranks of Delhi’s ’chatterati’, the
India International Center, 40 Max Mueller Marg (tel: (011) 2461 9431; website:
www.iicdelhi.nic.in), is a political
icon and post-independence institution. It is the capital’s premier cultural center and organizes seminars, lectures, music and dance recitals, as well as screening films on all aspects of Indian culture and environment. Nearby is the huge
India Habitat Center, junction of Lodhi Road and Max Mueller Marg (tel: (011) 2468 2001-9; website:
www.indiahabitat.org), which offers a lively and interesting program of drama and lectures.
Most of the cultural centers host concerts and exhibitions, as well as screening films in English or their native language. These include, on Kasturba Gandhi Marg, the German cultural center
Max Mueller Bhavan (tel: (011) 2332 9506; website:
www.goethe.de/su/ned/enindex.htm), the
British Council (tel: (011) 2371 1401; website:
www.britishcouncil.org/india), and the
American Library (tel: (011) 2331 4251; website:
http://americanlibrary.in.library.net). The
Alliance Française (tel: (011) 4350 0200; website:
www.afdelhi.org) is at 72 Lodhi Estate.
Local newspapers including
Hindustan Times (website:
www.hindustantimes.com) and
The Times of India (website:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com) carry daily and weekly listings of all events and should be the reference point for anyone interested in sampling the rich cultural life of Delhi.
First City,
Delhi City Guide and
Delhi Diary magazines also carry listings.
Music: Delhi’s concert halls tend to be busy more or less year round, with the
Delhi Symphony Orchestra performing at various venues such as the
Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg (tel: (011) 2338 8084) and the
FICCI Auditorium, Tansen Marg (tel: (011) 2371 9470). Hindustani music is by far the most popular, but Delhiites also have a keen interest in international music. Some of Delhi’s open-air venues, such as the majestically lit
Qutb Minar (see
Key Attractions), provide a dramatic backdrop for select performances. The
Delhi Music Society (tel: (011) 2611 5331) is based at 8 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri.
Theater: Delhi is well provided with innovative theaters and the area just to the north of India Gate is home to a number of these, including the
Kamani Auditorium (see
Music above). The
Abhimanch, Bahawalpur House, Bhagwan Das Road (tel: (011) 2338 9402), stages a scintillating program of theater, dance and films through the year.
Dance: Lovers of dance are well catered for in Delhi, seeing as a rich mix of classical (including Kathak, Bharatnatyam and Kathakali), folk and tribal dance, as well as ballet, are performed at various auditoria throughout the year. The
India International Center and
Triveni Theater (see above) are both popular venues for regular, professional dance shows.
Film: Cinema is by far the most popular form of entertainment in India. The glitzy love stories and action movies of Bollywood attract massive audiences and their stars are national icons. There are any number of cinemas in Delhi, some showing only films in Hindi, some only in English and some in both languages. English-language films are shown, among many others, at the
PVR Priya Cinema , Basant Lok Complex, Vasant Vihar (tel: (011) 98107 08625; website:
www.pvrcinemas.com), and the
PVR Plaza Cinema, H-Block, Connaught Place (tel: (011) 4151 6787; website:
www.pvrcinemas.com). Local newspapers provide session details.
Literary Notes: The delights of Delhi have been dissected, eulogised and disputed over the generations, by a whole canon of writers. William Dalrymple’s
City of Djinns (1994), the fruit of a year spent in Delhi, is a luminous and penetrative combination of history, observation and anecdote. A meaty slice of Indian life viewed from the inside is Vikram Seth’s epic
A Suitable Boy (1993), which follows the lives of four extended families set against the political landscape in a newly independent northern India, in the 1950s.
Anita Desai, who was educated in Delhi, also focuses on the time of partition in her first published novel,
Clear Light of Day (1980), which traces the interweaving, departures and reconciliation of the Das family of Old Delhi. Ahmed Ali’s
Twilight in Delhi (1940) gives a pungent whiff of life in early-20th-century Delhi. Through Ali’s wistful eyes, the reader glimpses the rhythms and rituals of Islamic life in the city, before the construction of New Delhi, a world that was destroyed forever by partition.
One of the most prominent of Indian writers today, Keralan-born Arundhati Roy, who won the Booker Prize with
God of Small Things (1997), studied and lives in Delhi. Those interested in the history of India’s progress to independence and beyond should search out a copy of Durga Das’s
India:
From Curzon to Nehru (1969). It is a most absorbing book, written by someone (a Delhi man to the core) who was himself on stage as these momentous events unfolded over a period of 50 years.
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