History, unfortunately, has been superseded in favour of flighty novels and trashy periodicals..." writes JRB Jeejeebhoy, the city historian who examined Bombay with a lens so wide, that reading his work nearly 60 years after his demise opens a new trunk of gems. JRB Jeejeebhoy hailed from a family of Parsi merchants or sethias and began working in the family-s textile and engineering business, before gravitating towards print.

Bombay Vignettes Asiatic Society of Mumbai is a compilation of his writings on the city that will be launched this evening. City historian and researcher Murali Ranganathan, who edited the book, shares, "I first encountered Jeejeebhoy 10 years ago; for some reason he hadn-t been given attention after his death [in 1960].