Book excerpt: My Allahabad Story recollects the author's privileged childhood in a prominent family of the city he is obsessed with. He traces his growing years in the large middle class Kayastha family bringing out in amusing detail, some quaint social customs and traditions that existed half a century ago. The author wonderfully describes the changed complexion of the city with a tinge of despair. Life and times and what happened to Allahabad has been graphically described with nostalgia. An interesting account of an Irish resident brings out the social life that prevailed in Allahabad hundred years ago, interlaced beautifully between the English, Anglo-Indians and Indians.