The City That Remains: Guwahati, and the Poetry it Inspires
Through memories, juxtapositions, and observations of the intricate, the poems about Guwahati in The Penguin Book of Poems on the Indian City (2025) portray a city that no longer exists, having metamorphosed into a new ‘synthetic’ space marred by politics and reckless urbanisation. By Ayaan Halder
A Civilization and its Stories: Salman Rushdie’s VICTORY CITY
In his latest work, Salman Rushdie expertly flirts with the line between fact and fiction, declaring all living beings—including those reading his book—may be ‘characters’ in a grander historical fiction. When nothing is real, stories are the only reality. By Karan Madhok
Welcome to ‘Nation of Auteurs’, a series composed of critical essays by academics, filmmakers, historians, and cinephiles, to examine the deep diversity of Indian film auteurs and illuminate the country’s wider cinematic landscape. By Ashish Dwivedi