From Ghalib’s Delhi and Nissim Ezekiel’s Bombay to Agha Shahid Ali’s Srinagar and Kamala Das’s Calcutta, from Sarojini Naidu’s Hyderabad to Arundhathi Subramaniam’s Madras to Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s Shillong; The Penguin Book of Poems on the Indian City takes you on a spectacular poetic journey across thirty-seven cities in India.This anthology contains 375 poems, those written in English and those translated from nearly twenty languages. From the classical voices of Valmiki and the Sangam poets to the Bhakti and Sufi strains of Surdas, Kabir and Amir Khusrau, and the early modern figures like Mir Taqi Mir, Narmad, Rudyard Kipling and Rabindranath Tagore, this collection offers an immersive lyrical exploration of India’s urban landscape.Contemporary poets such as Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Vikram Seth, Eunice de Souza, Arun Kolatkar, Amrita Pritam, Amit Chaudhuri and Gulzar carry this tradition into the present. Together, they take the reader through depictions of cities as imperial capitals, colonial outposts and dynamic, ever-evolving spaces that serve as the backdrop for postmodern life. At its core, this collection portrays the Indian city as a complex organism and living embodiment of the collective consciences of its many, many residents. A collection for not just those who live in the cities featured in this book but for anyone who is familiar with the chaotic, paradoxical and magical tableau that constitutes life in a city in this part of the world.
Product Details
Author:
Bilal Moin
Publisher:
India Hamish Hamilton
SKU:
BK0523051
EAN:
9780143470687
Number Of Pages:
1072
Language:
English
Binding:
Hard Back
Release date:
30 May 2025
About Author
By day, BILAL MOIN is an economist trained at Yale and Oxford. By night, he is a writer, poet and photographer. His writing has appeared in Rattle, The Oxford Isis, Indian Literature, Himal Southasian and elsewhere. He was a finalist for the Jon Stallworthy Poetry Prize, and his first collection of poetry was published in 2018. He was born and raised in Bombay, or Mumbai, depending on your persuasion.
