INK AND INTIMACY

CITIES HAVE CHARACTER. AND SOME METROPOLISES, MORE THAN OTHERS, EMBODY THE VERY ESSENCE OF ROMANCE IN THEIR STREETS, ALLEYWAYS, BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS

- ANTARAA CHATTERJEE

ARRIVING IN A NEW CITY OFTEN feels like meeting someone for the first time. The smells, sights, and surroundings all elicit familiar yet faraway emotions. Cities have been romanticised by the creative realm for as long as anyone can remember. The dichotomy of belonging and feeling like an outsider has never been explained better than Olivia Laing when she said, "You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people." And then there are others who left their homes only to find their hearts arrested by a new city. A city isn't much different from a person–there is the beginning of innocence, the scars of history, and the romance of ages. They crumble and rise again, much like you and me. In this compilation, we explore different cities around the world and how they have played muse to multiple literary and public figures.

ISTANBUL

“If I see my city as beautiful and bewitching, then my life must be so too.”

—Orhan Pamuk