India, June 14 -- Years after poet Ghalib's passing, the beautiful doorway of his last haveli in the Walled City was carefully dismantled from its surrounding wall of old-fashioned lakhori bricks, and installed as a primary exhibit in the museum celebrating his life and works.

But you can never see that door because. well, the story's not true. The final residence of Delhi's great literary figure actually fell into dereliction. At one point, it was used as a coal warehouse.

This wasn't exactly the kismet of Dublin's great writer James Joyce-but we'll get there. His novel Ulysses is famously contained into a single day, 16 June, and that date is celebrated worldwide as Bloomsday, named after the novel's hero. To celebrate the iconic city...