They say Delhi belongs to no one. For it seems everyone who lives in it calls someplace else home, from its slum dwellers to its ruling classes. As if its non-identity were its identity. Rakhshanda Jalil, who calls Delhi her home without reservation, searches for this invisible city, through stories—about Dilli, New Delhi, and everything in between.

In the thirty-two stories in this collection, there is a city that pushes through in its unbearable heat and cold and a city that plays rummy and talks golf at the Gymkhana Club; a phoenix city built by emperors and imperialists, by poets, by labourers, traders and fixers; a city that survived the Partition and shelters its victims; and a city of lovers and dreamers, but also of thick-skinned, cynical politicians and babus. Among the writers featured in this majestic anthology are legends and new voices—Khushwant Singh, Bhisham Sahni, Rashid Jahan, Mohan Rakesh, Gulzar, Kartar Singh Duggal, Krishna Sobti, Keki Daruwalla, M. Mukundan, Asghar Wajahat, Namita Gokhale, Uday Prakash, Navtej Sarna, Sujit Saraf, Vandana Singh, Palash Krishna Mehrotra, Manjula Padmanabhan, Ajay Navaria, Ankush Saikia and Priya Hajela.

Basti & Durbar is an intimate portrait of Delhi. It will also be an enduring one.