Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is often marked as one of the most densely populated and polluted cities in South AsiaSouth Asia and the world. For various reasons, Dhaka is an important city, and historically, the city has a broader significance. Since the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 through a nine-month-long war against Pakistan, Dhaka has risen to a metropolisMetropolis despite its numerous challenges. Devastated by the war, the city has developed rapidly, but because of a lack of long-term planning and deep-rooted awarenessAwareness among the people of the country to sustain the developmentDevelopment, Dhaka is turning into an almost uninhabitable city day by day. Alarmingly, the city is on the verge of losing ecological balance. Environmental hazards, created mainly by people, are putting the city at riskRisk of various calamities, including earthquakesEarthquake, water crises, and droughts. This article intends to examine how Dhaka is placed in the glorious history of Bangladesh. The city has, no doubt, developed quite amazingly, but the people of the city have failed to warrant sustainabilitySustainability. The article also addresses how the city has been portrayed in different stories in The Book of Dhaka: A City in Short Fiction, with a special focus on the developmentDevelopment and sustainabilitySustainability of the environmentEnvironment.