Slice of life: Lockdown tales from Delhi’s streets

In this lifetime, many of us who have lived to tell the tale will always recall the Covid-19 pandemic as a strange time. It is no surprise, then, that a spate of literature emerged in the pandemic’s aftermath. The latest addition to this list is London-based banker turned-writer Radhika Swarup’s collection of 15 interconnected short stories, The New Delhi Book Club. Set in the bustling heart of the capital, the book offers a slice of life from the time of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The stories focus on a particular neighbourhood in the city during the pandemic, following a colourful cast of characters who live there. With each story, readers get to know the characters better, understand their lives, and experience the pandemic through their perspectives. “The book owes so much to the memory of those first strange, terrifying months of lockdown in 2020, and my own images are essentially coloured by interactions with others living through the time,” writes the author in the book’s acknowledgements.

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Ironically, Swarup was due to fly to Delhi the day after the lockdown was announced, so a massive part of her experience was feeling locked out of Delhi. “We could have flown in, of course, but would have found it hard to travel back, and so much of the emphasis was on keeping our loved ones safe from any germs we might be carrying,” says Swarup, who was especially conscious that her two school-aged children might be asymptomatic carriers. Thus, the stories in the book are a direct result of her forced distance from Delhi. “They were my way of imagining myself back in the streets that have always been an anchor for me,” she adds. Fortunately, the lockdown passed pleasantly for her, as she was able to work from home and her children enjoyed the company of their parents as much as that of their friends.

In the title story, Shami, an old, lonely widower, strikes up an unexpected friendship with his new neighbour’s six year-old daughter during the lockdown. They set up a book club of their own, regularly exchanging books with one another through their mailbox. This Too Was Love is told from the perspective of Ashima, Shami’s daughter, who is married and settled in London. Like many children who live abroad, she is unable to visit India during the pandemic. Far away from her father, Ashima frequently calls to check on him, much to his irritation over what he feels is her excessive concern.

In Making Memories, Ashima, locked down in London and unable to visit her hometown, nostalgically recalls Delhi’s Paranthe Wali Gali. “The closeness of the street, the smells, the noise, the filth,” she reminisces fondly. Further, in The Coronavirus Rhapsody, Mihir, Shami’s grandson in London, who turns ten during the lockdown, communicates with his grandfather over email. In Saloni’s Cough, we meet Chetan, Shami’s servant, who is unable to return to his village during the pandemic. However, he has another reason for wanting to stay back in Delhi—the young girl who works in the house opposite. Through text messages and stolen glances, Chetan and Saloni’s romance blossoms during the pandemic, satirically, while social distancing. “Their interaction was mostly in the shadows, for all the torches blazing across Delhi’s rooftops; reactions to a text gauged by the pauses as much as by physical replies,” explains Swarup.

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Many images of the pandemic are still fresh in our collective imagination. For instance, The Journey Home shines a spotlight on the countless migrant labourers forced to walk thousands of kilometres in the heat to reach their homes in the villages during lockdown. The book also highlights some positive aspects of the pandemic, such as the increased visibility of birds during lockdown. Delhi’s state bird, the sparrow, which had nearly disappeared, magically re-emerged during this time. Moreover, with no outside distractions, family members were confined together and, in a sense, were encouraged to spend quality time with one another. People also began to look within, embracing a minimalist outlook and finding contentment with what they had.

Swarup’s previous novel, Civil Lines, was also set in Delhi and examines India’s 2018 Me Too moment. Although she belongs to a Delhi family, Swarup was not born in the city, which perhaps is why it has always felt like a homecoming to her. “I went to school here, first grazed my knee riding a bike here, fell in love for the first time here, and got married here,” she writes. Now living in London, she visits Delhi less often than she would like. “But for all the changes time and technology wreak on it, the essence of the city always feels to me to be unchanged. I see in Delhi’s resilience, generosity of spirit and no-nonsense adaptability, a blueprint for myself, and more, a blueprint for facing any challenges life throws my way,” she concludes.