Teesta Review: A
Journal of Poetry, Volume 8, Number 1. May 2025. ISSN: 2581-7094
The dictionary
meaning of a city is a human settlement of a substantial size. There is a sense
of the permanent that goes with the word.
However, there have been cities that have disappeared, cities that have
evolved, cities that have moved, cities that have been destroyed. In this issue
of Teesta Review the focus is on the city in its myriad manifestations - as a
place of stay, a refuge, comforting at times, frightening at times too, a space
that is home and a space that is menacing as well, a space associated with
memory and nostalgia, with food and places, with the old and the new.
In the violent
times that we live in there are citied being razed, destroyed and damaged.
Lives and homes lost and destroyed. The images that one gets to see revealing
the pain and the violence of it all. A vast emptiness remains.
Cities are not just about people, buildings and the material, they are also about hopes, aspirations and dreams. They change and alter. New cities come into being as well. There is a sense of the dynamic in it all. This issue of Teesta Review has poets and writers responding to the theme of the City in myriad ways – the city as home, of the idea of culture, of language, of assimilation and difference, of being part of and looking at cities as an outsider as well, of food, of class and caste. Each poet and writer bring in a new facet, a new way of expression. The several voices in this issue include established and new ones as well revealing the way in which the city is an important aspect of one’s lived experience, of the way in which space becomes a part of identity and life.
Guest Editor
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