I've known author and fellow Sunday mid-day columnist Meher Marfatia since the early 1980s. Sure, that’s carbon-dating us. But her new book Once Upon A City celebrates carbon-dating in Mumbai as never before. And, fellow columnist Rahul daCunha has been a solid supporter of the book. The column has been wildly popular Now its juiciest morsels have been condensed into a plump, but handy-sized book. Its tag-line: making the little stories of Mumbai matter.

Apart from her legion fans, Meher’s reveals that her biggest compliment came from a little old lady with failing vision, whose doctor had forbidden her to read: “‘I told him to make one exception every other Sunday, when Once Upon A City appears, because I really enjoy it,’ she told me. Touched, I thanked her and apologised that it’s a longish column. ‘No, no, don’t you shorten it by a single word, dear,’ she replied.”