Dasgupta's book is reminiscent of Mehta's "Bombay: Maximum City" in many ways, although he eschews a fair amount of the "technical" history fun favour of anecdotes that describe the Delhi of centuries years ago and today. There are times when he overreaches and explodes into flurries of prose (which worked in his novel, but become second-rate "fantastic realism" occasionally here), but all in all, it's a really fascinating read. Well worth the time.