Sarnath Banerjee

In his talk, Sarnath Banerjee proposes to take the audience on a journey through his failed attempts at drawing maps of Delhi based on its monsters. The maps will weave myths, rumours and uncanny happenstances to investigate imaginary creatures and their habitats. The monsters are based on familiar stereotypes of Delhi.

The talk attempts to chart a cartography of disreputable men and women that includes real-estate agents, corrupt bureaucrats, hustlers and con-men. There are for example fruit-sellers who readily give away a lifetime of business by palming off a few bad apples to old customers and carpenters who will destroy entire walls to put up a picture. Vigilante right-wing political hoods, rough taxi drivers, Attila the land-lady, hyena-like municipal corporation officials are all fair game to be included in the great Delhi bestiary.

Through these imaginary beings, Banerjee hopes to give the audience an insider-look into a growth obsessed society, with the steady emergence of a right-wing candidate supported by an increasingly conservative middle-class electorate.