India, June 30 -- Meet Dilli's no. 1 Joycean. This gentlewoman in Sunder Nagar is likely to be the only Delhi dweller to have made it to the most significant James Joyce destination on the very first day of its opening to the public.

It all started in 1922, with the publication of Ulysses. Joyce's great Dublin novel unfolds within a single day-16 June, today named Bloomsday after the book's hero, and celebrated across the world. That day, Dublin's sea-facing Martello tower becomes a mecca for Joyce fans; it being the site of the novel's opening scene. In 1962, the tower was filled with souvenirs from the writer's life, and thrown open on that year's Bloomsday as James Joyce Museum. Among the first visitors was a woman in sari.

This even...