The past and memory - (a bit of the same thing, one a mirror to the other, aren't they?) So much of both are lost, you've to invent as each day regresses, day after day. Written between 1991 and 1993, Daruwalla's collection celebrates the histories and legends of the grand Persian Empire, a phase of history barely glanced at in contemporary literature. The book explores the stories of the kings-Darius, Cyrus and Alexander. Before history is revisited, Daruwalla begins with 'The Barbarians'-and it is a riposte to Constantine P. Cavafy's famous poem-'Barbarians'...