Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Modern India and the Claims of the City xiii
VINAY LAL
Mosaic of the City
MARK TWAIN
Following the Equator 1
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD
A Handsome City Seated on Two Bays 30
NISSIM EZEKIEL
Irani Restaurant Instructions 32
A Morning Walk 33
GIEVE PATEL
City Landscape 34
DILIP CHITRE
My Father Travels 35
GIEVE PATEL
From Bombay Central 36
ASHOK BANKER
Vertigo 38
SALEEM PEERADINA
A Voyeur is Born 41
Death of a Well 43
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Song of the City (Nagar-sangit) 45
BUDDHADEV BOSE
Calcutta 48
PRITISH NANDY
calcutta if you must exile me 51
NIRENDRANATH CHAKRA VARTY
Calcutta's Jesus 52
SUNIL GANGOPADHYAY
City of Memories 53
LINA FRUZZETTI
In Conversation with MJ Akbar,
Satindranath Chakrabarty, and Sunil Ganguly
Calcutta Conversations 62
KEDARNATH SINGH
Banaras 75
RAVI DAYAL
A Kayastha's View 77
GHULAM M. SHEIKH
Delhi 83
SARNATH BANERJEE
Corridor: A Graphic Novel 84
KULWINDER KAUR
Daily Hurts 90
RANJIT LAL
Wild City: Nature Wonders Next Door 97
KUNWAR NARAIN
Lucknow 102
K.S. NARASIMHA SWAMY
From House to House 104
DHOOMIL
The City, Evening, and an Old Man: Me 107
NIRUPAMA DUTT
Cityscape 109
Imagination of the City, the City of Imagination
FOLKTALE FROM WEST BENGAL
Oh! Calcutta 111
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
City and Village 112
MAJROOH SULTANPURI
This is Bombay, My Love! 126
SALMAN RUSHDIE
Bombay was Central 127
AMITABHA BHATTACHARYA
Satyajit Ray's Calcutta: Friend or Adversary? 129
DIANA L. ECK
Banaras: City of Death 139
AMITAVA KUMAR
In the Light if Small Towns 143
ADITY A NIGAM
Theatre of the Urban: The Strange Case of the Monkeyman 151
U.R. ANANTHAMURTHY
Ooru and the World 161
ASHIS NANDY
Time Travel to a Possible Self: Searching for the Alternative
Cosmopolitanism of Cochin 165
The City in Colonial India
KALIPRASANNA SINHA
The Observant Owl: Hootum's Vignettes of
Nineteenth-century Calcutta 199
G.H.
The Opening if the East Indian Railway 211
AMAR FAROOQUI
Opium City: The Making if Early Victorian Bombay 218
NARENDRA LUTHER
A Parade of Diwans 225
SIDNEY LOW
Vision of India 230
NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI
Man and Life in Calcutta 241
KENNETH L. GILLION
Ahmedabad: A Study in Indian Urban History 258
SUDHIR PATWARDHAN
The City Political: A Portfolio
A note on the artist by VINA Y LAL 270
Spaces, Sights, Surroundings: Architecture of the City and Its Streets
HERBERT BAKER
The New Delhi 277
CHARLES CORREA
Space as a Resource 292
ARJUN APPADURAI
Street Culture 297
P. THANKAPPAN NAIR
A History of Calcutta's Streets 306
GAUTAM BHATIA
Baroque Architecture in the City 320
SUKETU MEHTA
A Lover's Embrace 328
VINAY LAL
The Urban Landscape of Deewaar 329
Further Reading: A Select Bibliography 341
VINAY LAL
Notes on Contributors 367
Copyright Statement 379