In all the time since she knew her friend Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Lady Flora had barely ever seen him with a book in hand. For all his wisdom of the city’s civic and administrative matters, it was an observation that always piqued her overtly curious mind. Clearly, this was a sight to behold. Seated on their preferred bench inside Horniman Circle Garden, her friend was poring over a large tome, the kinds that one would usually spot inside the dusty cauldrons of a less-frequented library or archive. Beside him there were a few other titles stacked up in a high pile. ‘Where am I supposed to sit,’ she wondered, as she approached the spot.

Sir PM had obviously not noticed her presence until she gently patted him on the shoulder. “Pheroze…all okay, I hope? What’s with the intense reading session?” she asked. Her friend jumped out of his bubble. “Oh! Greetings, My Lady. I didn’t see you. Sincere apologies. How have you been? I was just catching up on some reading…” he replied. “What is in this book is of interest, Pheroze? Is there something you wish to fill me in on? She prodded, ever keen to get to the details. “It’s all over the news. Haven’t you heard? There’s talk from every side; first up, Percy flew in immediately – for once – with the update, as soon as he heard from his pigeon friends across at the railway station, and this was closely followed by the good doctor Viegas who confirmed it. There is serious talk that Churchgate will, in all likelihood, be renamed after an important man, Chintamanrao Deshmukh, who was one of India’s sharpest financial brains in post-Independent India. So, I decided to commence reading about the esteemed gentleman since it’s a name we will need to get used to in our daily chats and updates,” he revealed, in business-like fashion.