It calls for special skills to write a scholarly research-based non-fiction book and make it as interesting as a work of fiction. Gyan Prakash, the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University has done just that in his book, “Mumbai Fables.” I loved reading this book and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in recent Indian history. Befitting the work of a scholar, the book is replete with references and citations to back the story of a city that has often been called, “India’s City of Dreams.” For hundreds of years now the erstwhile Bombay, now called Mumbai, was every man’s dream. Thousands flocked there every day, as indeed they do even today, to seek their fortunes, fueled perhaps by the glamour provided by “Bollywood” or the Hindi film industry.