This is the extraordinary story of Dominique lapierre’s love affair with India, from his first 20, 000 kilometre drive across the subcontinent in a veteran silver cloud Rolls-Royce gathering unique testimonies for his epic account of India’s independence, to his later encounters with the country disinherited and its saints, who taught him a wonderful lesson in sharing and hope and gave birth to the internationally renowned book and film, “the city of joy”. it is a tale of maharajas and rickshaw pullers, of interviews with Indira Gandhi and the brother of Gandhian assassin, of life-changing meetings with mother Teresa and the victims of the Bhopal disaster, of pig sticking on horseback, of life in the slums with a Swiss nurse and of saving a home for children affected by Leprosy. Above all, it is an insight into how India, with its immense mosaic of people and fascinating culture stole a Frenchman's heart and turned his life into a testimony to the fact that “all that is not given is lost”.