The oldest of Delhi's seven cities, Mehrauli was once the thriving capital of the Tomar and Chauhan dynasties, and the Dar ul Khilafat of the slave dynasty. But today it lies forgotten, its congested lanes and crumbling ruins lost in a mishmash of history and modernity, the living and the dead rubbing shoulders with each other. Mehrauli's old bylanes are dotted with historic structures-from the rocky Qila Rai Pithaura to the dargah of Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, from Zafar Mahal, the last great monument built by the Mughals, to the holy waters of the Hauz e Shamsi-all of which are a living memory of an era dissolved in history. In Where Stones Speak, Rana Safvi blends stirring Urdu couplets with haunting visuals to walk us through stories and legends of a bygone era revealing a little known, bewitching Mehrauli.

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