Mahmood Farooqui studied history In India and at the university of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Over the last four years he has worked to revive Dastangoi, the lost art of storytelling in Urdu. He has been helped and guided by S. R. Faruqi, Urdu's pre-eminent critic and writer. Farooqui also contributes opinion pieces to India's leading newspapers and magazines. His first book on the uprising of 1857 in Delhi is due out from Penguin India next year.