A historian, an old library, a sudden encounter with a set of unidentified old diaries. What followed is what always happens in such narratives, a remarkable discovery. It is perhaps a chance encounter that the diaries of Alexander Cunningham be discovered in the 150th year of his appointment as the first archaeological surveyor of British India. Cunningham later held office of the Director General of the government department of archaeology, the later Archaeological Survey of India. Nayanjot Lahiri, historian responsible for the discovery, shares the story.