We are familiar with the history that informs us how the islands of Bombay were sold to the East India Company in the 17th century by the Portuguese as part of a marriage alliance. But how did they come into the hands of the Portuguese and what made ‘Bom Baim’, as it was then called, such an important location? Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed, who write under the pseudonym Kalpish Ratna, answer this, among other things, with nuance, in their new book, Bahadur Shah of Gujarat (Simon & Schuster). “Bahadur is missing from his own history,” say the author-surgeon duo, when we catch up with them over a call.

Written in the form of frame narratives, which bring the perspective of multiple narrators, the book traces young king Bahadur’s journey, from his teenage years of being exiled from the richest kingdom to his war days with the Mughals and death at the hands of the Portuguese. What’s interesting is that it locates Bombay on the map that captures the territory of the Gujarat Sultans. This idea of unearthing stories that show a glimpse into the port city that it was is something that the writers have often probed at in their writings. For the two, it’s important as readers and writers to ask ourselves: What’s the story of the ground where you stand?