What makes a city uniquely itself?

Is it its geography, history, location?

Is it its leaders, aspirations, demographics?

Or is it a palpable spirit, wrought of a combination of all these, that seeps into the soil over centuries, and charges the air, infecting residents and visitors alike?

Two decades of exploring her hometown - and reading, writing and talking about it - has convinced Roopa Pai that the last is true: cities are neither born nor made, they become.

In this collection of evocative essays, she trawls the city's history to tease out bits of the Bangalore jigsaw - a scientist's quest for excellence, a maharani's foresight, an entrepreneur's vision, a chief minister's ambition, a writer's pride in his language, and more - in an effort to trace the genesis of the liberal soul of the metropolis and its ability to offer inclusive, creative, laid-back spaces amid its frenetic growth. What emerges is a fascinating mosaic that reveals how a little sixteenth-century settlement on a hill became India's most charismatic city.