Prose and cons of a beloved city

Allahabad has changed over and over. In her memoir, Mamta Kalia writes of the city she knew, one of ease, informality, literary genius

- Poonam Saxena

‘How does one remember a city? How does one pay homage to a place that was part of one’s being; its sights, sounds and smells, its very air, embedded in the bones?

I just finished reading Hindi writer Mamta Kalia’s memoir, Jeete Jee Allahabad (Living in Allahabad; for which she won a 2025 Sahitya Akademi Award), and I think she may have the answer. The book is about the city where she and her husband, the Hindi writer Ravindra Kalia, lived from the 1970s to the turn of the millennium.

In her memoir, Kalia writes of its storied literary history, as the home of authors, poets, and numerous publishing houses. Some, such as Lokbharti Prakashan, became the favoured addas of Hindi writers.

One might visit the offices and bump into Sumitranandan Pant one day and Amrit Rai the next. It wasn’t unusual for someone to pop in to ask, “Was Doodhnath [Singh] here?” Only to be told, “He was here an hour ago, but he left in search of Markandeya.”