He admits, “No one has asked me this question,” before replying, “After the 1990s, there was a clear demarcation. There was a sense of inertia across India as it was still a mixed economy. The [Delhi’s] attractive, shabby gentility of the 1950s and ’60s is missing. It became mildewed and unattractive in the 1980s. You expected things to change but it didn’t — that was the period of inertia. But by the 1990s, the city’s skyline had transformed. It is certainly less green. Now, the flyovers are barricaded so you can’t even see the city.” By the end of the interview, there is full disclosure, “I hate to say this as a Dilliwallah but I used to be more pro-Delhi. I definitely love Mumbai as a place to be in.” There. Finally.

These sidelights offer context to Delhi’s political and societal hubbub in a fast-changing India that Mahajan lays bare with surgical-like precision in this generational opus based on the dramatic and disturbing lives of the Chopra clan.
 
Excerpts from the interview.