Journalist and author Naresh Fernandes’ new book, City Adrift, begins with the paradoxical dreams builders sell home-buyers in Mumbai — a retreat away from the chaos of Mumbai, built in Mumbai — which seldom fails to flummox him.

To get away from the ridiculousness of it all, Fernandes spends his weekends trying to guess the city’s future by visiting its past — he frequents changing neighbourhoods and structures crumbling and renewed. It is through these experiences that the book truly acquires a sense of urgency — City Adrift is a biography of a Bombay under change, a shape-shifter of a city.