Jotunheim is not a city. It is a word from Scandinavian mythology and refers to the outer world or the realm of giants. The word has an interesting Germanic conceptual explanation and mentions innangard or something that is ‘inside the fence’ where existence is orderly and law-abiding and at the other end is the utangard or something that is ‘beyond the fence’ where chaos and anarchy reside. Jotunheim reminds me of Delhi.
Yes, Delhi is such an appropriate representation for all that Jotunheim implies. We are such a chromosomal mix of law-abiding as well as anarchic citizen in this city. In the Scandinavian mythological references that I came across, Jotunheim is the ‘dwelling-place of the giants and is described as a deep, dark forest with mountain peaks where winter never eases its grip, and an inhospitable and grim landscape’. Sounds rather like an adventure drive, doesn’t it? Almost like Delhi where in the midst of deep, dark concrete forests are its traffic tales of cold peak hour jams where the extreme cold of ‘my right to drive ahead is more than your right to drive’ never thaws… and where interactions can be like holding a conversation that drives right and might in equal measure. We in Delhi imagine we’re the most privileged ones with the right form of drive. Yes, our imagination becomes Jotunheim.
The puny humans that we are, we still have the temerity to conclude that we tower over every other form of existence… the ‘holy’ cow included. This is all too obvious in the capital of India. We connect with this feeling rather well and spend a greater part of our time shooing pigeons from our balcony and threatening to drive over sleeping dogs. We use cars as sheep-dogs and the horns as their bark to herd peacefully meditating cattle from the middle of the road to the middle of the footpath… and this is where the pedestrians compete well and try sending them back to the middle of the road. We connect with this business of human-animal interaction in the cities in our own special way and with the aim to dominate… as we feel we are like Thrym or ‘uproar’, the feared king of the frost giants in the invisible city of Jotunheim. Yes, we do create an uproar every time this connect loses its power. We in Delhi connect to rule.
In the Norse tales, Jotunheim is the chief city, like Delhi, let me remind you… and other strongholds that include Gastropnir, home of the giantess Menglad and Thiazi where Thrymheim rules. Delhi is no less as we have NCR or the National Capital region where cities from other States are a part of us… so Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and other surrounding cities are always there to help Delhi design the character that it has created for itself. The surrounding States like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana make sure that the design of the uproar never gets boring. This is the design that has formed the character of modern-day Delhi… and if we go back in history, so many invasions from up North have added their own elements over centuries. No wonder then that Ghalib still walks the lanes and bylanes of this city with as much love for Delhi as do the goons and gangs from UP or the khaap psyches from Haryana. Delhi accepts them all and slowly lumbers towards a future that is full of the giants of Jotunheim.
Well, I’ve imagined Delhi as Jotunheim… but the truth is that the drive, design, and connect with this Norse tale is more than imagination alone. Truth has made it sound truer than truth.
.
.
.
When imagination became Jotunheim… of design, drive, and connect….
.
.
.
Arvind Passey
13 December 2015
