ISLAMABAD: A book, titled ‘Rawul Pindee’, was launched at Islamabad Club on Tuesday.

The book threw light on the lives of the people who lived in the garrison city during the ‘British Raj’.

Written by 64-year-old Ali Akbar Khan, the book contains stories of people who lived in the city, particularly between 1880 and 1920, and contains pictures of them as well.

The author told Dawn that his family had migrated from Jalandhar to Rawalpindi at the time of partition.

He calls the material in the book ‘the Raj years’ and said it is the first coffee table book on Rawalpindi.

When asked about the title of the book, he said the British used to write ‘Rawul Pindee’ instead of the proper, Rawalpindi, which is why he spelled the title that way.

“It is because the book tells the tales of people in the British era,” he said.

“It took me 15 years to collect material for the book and some five months to write it. A lot of people shared information with me through the internet,” he added.

Mr Khan said a lot of material was given to him by friends and family of the people who lived here at the time from as far away as New Zealand, England and even India.

“I already had some information because studying this topic is a hobby,” the author said.

The book will be available in the market soon.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2015