Archives - Question of Cities

Delhi like the dhau: A city of co-existence and kinship

The city reveals its quieter cycles beyond kilometres built and capital leveraged, if only we cared to look closely, recognise its biodiversity, restore native ecologies, and invest in nature-based solutions beyond token gestures. There’s birdsong as layered chorus, seasonal blooming…

Mumbai, our city, is being snatched from us

Through the decades of 1970-80s and till the mid-90s, Bombay was the arena for associations, unions, collectives and movements for people’s rights, justice, and equality. Dialogues and disagreements were part of its landscape, social action unfolded on its streets. That…

Bengaluru re-imagined through its incredible water network

Bengaluru’s water woes are not new but, this letter to the city by a hardcore Bengalurean and water expert, is a tender recount of its water network with an appeal to look beyond lakes’ restoration. From connecting lake channels, situating…

Let’s transform Kolkata into a care-based feminist city

In its bid to ‘develop’ into a modern metropolis, the city’s everyday rhythms are fading. Kolkata must hold on to its essence – embrace of all people, streets as expressions of protests, neighbourhood addas and baithaks all a testimony to…

Clean air and water in Thrissur. Breaking barriers in Chennai

Drawing a circle from Thrissur to Chennai, Mumbai, and back to Thrissur, this multi-city letter weighs in to reminisce what used to make them ‘home’ earlier, and what has changed over the decades and what has not. It then re-imagines,…

Dehradun, we dream a future without air purifiers and ailments

Two summers ago, when the temperature of Dehradun touched 47 degrees Celsius, many realised the price of sacrificing trees for development and came out to protest. The picturesque hill station has been marred by over-tourism, congestion, excessive construction, and poor…

Saving Tinsukia from its quest for ‘development’

An old British town that grew alongside modest industries has shown enough furious momentum to be considered for India’s Smart Cities Mission in 2015. But development should never erase the character of a place, or change it irretrievably at the…

What if the Musi River could lead the development of Hyderabad?

The Musi, the pride of the city during the Nizam era, is a channel of filth, its banks encroached upon, its waters carrying untreated waste and industrial effluents, and its edges subjected to construction in the name of riverfront development.…

‘Rivers are not meant to die because of our mistakes’

The Musi could have been the defining characteristic of Hyderabad, the cyber city, as it was in history when it filled over 3,000 lakes, had 22 flood diversion channels, 14 public parks, and places of learning and social life along…

The Musi was, and is, Hyderabad’s heritage
and culture

The story of the Musi is woven with that of the city. It, historically, had a riverfront with grand palaces, shamshaan ghats, Sati mounds, dhobi ghats, slums, and held immense cultural and historical significance. Bathukamma, the flower festival, was celebrated…