WHERE do you live? This question, asked by a fellow guest at a Delhi party, can determine the flow of any further conversation. If the answer is East Delhi or Karol Bagh, it is an instant conversation-stopper, and the guest will immediately gravitate elsewhere. If your response is Golf Links or Chanakyapuri, you will soon be the centre of fawning attention. The areas mentioned in the latter response, for those unfamiliar with Delhi, are up-market areas. And if your response is ‘central Delhi’, it is indicative of being super-rich or a super-powerful high-level government functionary: in both cases, you will attract people who will stick to you like leeches.
Delhi is quite neatly divided into areas that define class boundaries, which induces people to ‘place’ others. In a culture which is class-conscious and always looking at how to exploit people and relationships, conversations and links are sought to be built with those who may be of use. This status consciousness seems to be now spreading across the country. No longer limited to social interaction, it is increasingly extending to the market.
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WHERE do you live? This question, asked by a fellow guest at a Delhi party, can determine the flow of any further conversation. If the answer is East Delhi or Karol Bagh, it is an instant conversation-stopper, and the guest will immediately gravitate elsewhere. If your response is Golf Links or Chanakyapuri, you will soon be the centre of fawning attention. The areas mentioned in the latter response, for those unfamiliar with Delhi, are up-market areas. And if your response is ‘central Delhi’, it is indicative of being super-rich or a super-powerful high-level government functionary: in both cases, you will attract people who will stick to you like leeches.