For someone who has engaged with Mumbai and its built environment for three decades, the pandemic has been a dampener. Recurring COVID-19 waves, harsh lockdowns, and an accident have kept architect, urbanist and educator Rahul Mehrotra, currently in the US, away from his home city for a while. But, the conversations around the city have never really stopped, assures Mehrotra, who is Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, John T Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization, Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Mehrotra, who started his practice in the city in 1990 with the establishment of RMA Architects, is out with a new book, Working in Mumbai (CEPT University Press), which weaves a narrative to connect his multiple engagements in architectural practice, including teaching, research, writing, documenting and exhibiting. It’s not a monograph, he writes quite early on in the book, “rather it’s a reflection on 30 years of practice”.