Beenu was an affable man, and rather quick witted. Since he had seen his father run a brick kiln, and dabbled in the transport business, real estate and local financing himself, I asked him to tell me what the experience of seeing things changing so drastically right before his eyes had been like. He responded with a smile,

The contradiction that Beenu had drawn was not merely a spatial one. There is a world of difference between the city and the village. People of South Delhi belong to the upper middle class and might even be considered the city's elite. Businessmen to government officials to members of the cultural and intellectual elite inhabit the many localities of South Delhi—all built on the agricultural lands of these villages. The villagers, however, may have money, but they do not embody the cultural capital that defines South Delhi. Both the city and the village have become cosmopolitan spaces, with aspirations that are quite ‘urban’, with inhabitants moving in and out of them seamlessly. This blurs the conceptual borders between urban and rural without erasing them, while also producing differences and hierarchies spatially. It also messes up identities. Proud Jat men find themselves derided in an urbanised world.