Chasing Delhi’s most popular historian. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Five evenings after the formal launch of his book Nine Lives – In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, author William Dalrymple (Will, if you please) was spotted at Bahrisons Booksellers in Khan Market. Sitting next to a shelf stacked with coffee table volumes, he had some 300 copies of Nine Lives piled neatly on his right. Rajni Bahri, the store's owner, was handing him the hardbounds one by one. Mr Dalrymple was chatty with her. He discussed children, joked about learning Bengali, praised a new book on Hinduism. After half an hour Mr Dalrymple was seen in front of the foreign magazine stall run by Mercury Audio Video. Next, his