This volume in the Time-Life Great Cities series is by a well-known author Dom Moraes, who has written travel books on other parts of India as well in addition to his memoirs, sketches and poetry. This roping in of established creative writers is one of the special features of this series that adds to its value. Another motivation to read these volumes, is to see how different writers approach a subject as daunting as a whole city (and, by implication, its hinterland and the sources of its cosmopolitan population). This city is no exception: the author has known it from the top elites to the slums and railway margins, as he was brought up right in the heart of its poshest localities, and has brushed shoulders with political leaders, creative artists, business tycoons, common people, and presswallahs all his life. So one gets an urbane, well-informed, and bright exposition, supported as always with unique images in the rough-and ready journalistic style of the 1970s and 1980s. ( )