Imagining Lahore begins in the present and travels through time to the mythological origins of this fabled city, attributed to the Hindu god Ram’s son Lav. Contemporary Lahore – its people, communities, monuments, parks and institutions – becomes a lens for Haroon Khalid, a resident of the city, to paint a vivid picture of the past. From its emergence under Mahmud Ghaznavi through the Mughal centuries where several succession intrigues unfolded on its soil, its recasting as the capital of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Khalsa Empire and the role it played in preserving the British Raj, to acting as an incubator of revolutionaries and people’s movements, Lahore has influenced the subcontinent’s political trajectory time and again. Imagining Lahore is a rare travelogue that reimagines a city’s present through glimpses of its past.