Ronald Vivian Smith is an author of personal experiences - a rare breed to find in a time when even journalists hesitate to put pen to paper without scanning through the internet. A definitive voice when it comes to some known and unknown tales and an inspiration to a new generation of city-scribes, Smith is a master-chronicler of Delhi's myriad realities. Among the capital's most ardent lovers, Smith believes in the power of observation and interaction. His travels across Delhi, most often in a DTC bus, examine the big and small curiosities - seamlessly juxtaposing the past with the present. Be it the pride he encounters in the hutments of one of Chandni Chowk's age-old beggar families, or his ambling walks around Delhi's now-dilapidated cemeteries, Smith paints with his words a city full of magic and history. This anthology features short essays on the Indian sultanate, its fall after the British Raj, and its resurrection to become what it is today - the National Capital Territory of Delhi. 'No amount of bookish knowledge can compete with the sort of insights and real, lived memories he [Smith] has.' -Rakshanda Jalil, LiveMint '... When it comes to writing on monuments of Delhi - known, little known or unknown - no one does a better job than R.V. Smith.' -Khushwant Singh, Hindustan Times

Ronald Vivian Smith is an alumnus of St. John's College, Agra and began writing as a teenager in 1954. He has authored many books, including four on Delhi, a romantic novel, Jasmine Nights & The Taj, three volumes of poetry, a collection of ghost yarns and a profile of the eighteenth-century Smith family he is descended from. As a septuagenarian he does not spend time on an easy-chair but in surveying out-of-the-way places for unusual stories that form the grist for weekly newspaper columns, 'Quaint Corner' and 'Down Memory Lane'. This publication of his completes the proverbial baker's dozen.