After walking out of the marriage she supported herself at first in Bombay and then in Delhi, where she met the then BBC Delhi-based South Asia correspondent, Charles Wheeler.

Among the memoirs in the book include early memories of being in Sargodha, meeting India's first Prime Minister in 1948, reading P. G. Wodehouse, seeing falling snow for the first time in Berlin, and an incident with ketchup, among others.

The title of the book refers to Dip’s childhood home in the Civil Lines of Sargodha, Punjab before the partition of India in 1947.

[2] The idea for writing it came from a publisher who read her review of Gurinder Chadha's film Viceroy's House in 2017, which depicted Britain's plans to partition India.

[5] In order to trace her maternal family’s life, and explain it in a historical context, she subsequently spent two years questioning her mother and conducting her own research through books, libraries, archives and visits to India and Pakistan, where she was assisted by relatives, friends and several academics.

[8][9] The front cover of the book depicts a photograph taken in 1968 at Golf Links, New Delhi, Wheeler's grandparent's home after India's independence.

[10] Charles Wheeler stands at the top centre with Dip, her sisters Amarjit and Anup, and brother Priti.

[8] Wheeler documents Dip's memories, narrates her story in chronological order, fills in gaps after interviewing relevant academics, friends and relatives, and adds her own researched historical context, revealing at each stage where she got the information from.

During the early twentieth century he was a doctor and well-off land-owner in Sargodha, Lahore, then in British India, now in Pakistan.

Unable to probe her into revealing more detail, Wheeler discovers from another relative that one day Dip packed a suitcase and just walked out.

Part three begins with Dip's departure from India in 1962 and settlement in Berlin, where she gave birth to their two daughters, and from where she took British nationality.

Part four covers the few trips back to India between 1963 and 1972 and here she describes the members of her extended Indian family, several of who have been in close contact throughout her life.

For his efforts in recruiting Punjabi men for the First World War and for attending to the sick during the influenza epidemic of 1918, the British had rewarded Papa-ji with sanads, deeds confirming his allegiance to them.

Among the historical themes and topics she writes about are Subhas Chandra Bose, the Radcliffe Line, China–India relations, Operation Blue Star, and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Early memories included receiving a bicycle as a gift and sitting in front of fires eating nuts with family in their mansion home.

At age 16, from Lady Irwin College, she was one of six girls to present a garland to then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his birthday.

[6] Regarding historical facts and analyses, the magazine felt Wheeler not at fault, but those who checked the text, and any inaccuracies were overshadowed by the personal story.

This book is more than a family memoir - it is an insightful glimpse into the way small worlds are forever changed by the impersonal currents of history".

[1] The Tribune quoted Dip's thoughts that she felt "that here (in Sussex), with Charles, I had regained the paradise I lost in Sargodha".