About the Book

Shah Jahan’s love for kakris and tarbuz… the secret of Purani Haveli… Shashi Kapoor’s sweet tooth… the story behind the Pir of Bachon Ka Ghar… the miracles of the Sufi saints…the Mughal emperors’ love for Gangajal…. All this and more in this refreshing bouquet culled from the gardens of myth and truth that RV Smith has frequented for six decades to bring to his readers these stories in The Hindu and The Statesman. Smith Sahib knows the gossip and legends that spilled over in the city streets, the whispers that once floated down its lanes and bylanes... what a Delhi Christmas was like in the 1890s, how New Year was celebrated after the siege and slaughter of 1857 and how Durga Puja came to Delhi and Jaipur. These stories keep the secrets of the cities safe from being lost forever.

About the Author

A descendant of Col Salvador Smith (1783-1871) of the Gwalior Army, Ronald Vivian Smith is the recipient of the Canon Holland Prize and the Rotary Award for general knowledge and the journalism award (1997-98) from the Michael Madhusudan Academy, Kolkata. History, antiquity, Egyptology, mysticism and the occult are his main interests, besides love for Mughlai food, which he shares with his wife, five children and grandson. Ronny Smith was born in Agra on 6 January 1938 and was educated at St Peter’s College and St John’s College, from where he got his MA degree in English Literature. He began writing for newspapers right from 1956 and then worked for the Press Trust of India and The Statesman, New Delhi, from where he retired as News Editor in 1996. Son of a journalist father, Thomas Smith, he has authored a dozen books, mostly on Delhi, besides a romantic novel, Jasmine Nights & The Taj, a book of ghost stories and two volumes of poetry.