Author and historian William Dalrymple is on the move. He’s wrapped up a studio shoot in Bandra, and has a lecture to deliver at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Fort. He stops for a conversation with us, and, in that moment, he has all our attention. His energy and excitement are infectious. “As a kid, my interests were archaeology and ancient history; I would spend all my school holidays digging on archaeological excavations. When I went to Cambridge, I studied archaeology initially, before changing to history. My 18-year-old self will be very surprised, as I ended up writing about the 18th and 19th centuries rather than ancient history,” he reveals. He recalls how, having first arrived in India 40 years ago in 1984, the first places he visited were the stupas at Sanchi and the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, guided by his original interest.

A chaityagriha at Bhaja caves near Pune