KNMA in collaboration with Tales of City

Street to Stories | City as Museum Festival

Ruins and Remnants

Mehrauli’s Saga with Author William Dalrymple, followed by a conversation with Author Prerna Jain

Date: 18 Dec 24

Time: 4.00pm to 6.00pm

Location: Mehrauli Archaeological Park, Interpretation Centre

Meeting Point: Car Parking at Archaeological Park

Nearest Metro Station: Qutub Minar

(Opposite Jain Ahimsa Sthal)

About the walk: Adjacent to the iconic Qutub complex, Mehrauli stands as a testament to cultural syncretism, with its roots tracing back to the Tomar and Chauhan dynasties and structures dating as early as the 11th century. Mehrauli Archaeological Park beautifully captures Delhi’s continuous evolution, offering a journey through India’s layered and diverse heritage. Join author William Dalrymple as he unfolds the saga of Mehrauli through his compelling narrative and explores the journey behind his latest release, The Golden Route: How Ancient India Transformed the World.

Author’s Bio: 

William Dalrymple is one of Britain’s great historians and the bestselling author of the Wolfson Prize-winning White Mughals, The Last Mughal, which won the Duff Cooper Prize, and the Hemingway and Kapuscinski Prize-winning Return of a King. A frequent broadcaster, he has written and presented three television series, one of which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA. He has also won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Foreign Correspondent of the Year at the FPA Media Awards, and been awarded five honorary doctorates. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held visiting fellowships at Princeton, Brown and All Souls, University of Oxford. He writes regularly for the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and the Guardian. In 2018 he was presented with the prestigious President’s Medal by the British Academy for his outstanding literary achievement and for co-founding the Jaipur Literature Festival. He is the co-host of chart-topping podcast Empire with Anita Anand. William lives with his wife and three children on a farm outside Delhi.

Author Bio

Prerna Jain is a multidisciplinary artist and storyteller, primarily through photographs and words. Her book of short stories has been published in Hindi and English, and her photographic work across a range of genres has been published in newspapers, magazines, and online publications of repute both in India and internationally. She has also published a coffee table book showcasing her extensive birdlife photography. She is a guest faculty at the Jamia University and writes regular photo essays for The Hindustan Times.

Additional Information:

Please wear comfortable shoes and clothes for this walk, and carry your bottle of water.

Light snacks will be served after the book discussion.