Kishan Kumar

1 June 2019

The Writers And Their City:

Cities as Inspiration in Literature

Every city has it’s own story, the story of its birth, the story of its progress, the story of
its glory, the story which unfolds several other stories, stories of different people, cultures,
languages, characters, ethnicity etc. Every corner of the city tells its story. These stories came
to light when someone help them with providing some medium. Someone like writer, poet or
lyricist unfolds all these stories in front of the world with the help of their respective mediums.
Cities work as a source of inspiration for writers because everyday cities are full of contents
like new stories of its people, emotions, progress, happiness, sadness. From the first sip of
coffee to the last bite of dinner, from the group of children playing in the park to crowd at
grocery stores, the queue at metro station to the farmers working in their farms, from the new
day sunrise to the relaxing evening, a writer experiences various types of emotions, instincts,
flickering moods etc. And these activities gives abundant of contents to create a new art. And
writers as well take full advantage of it. And the result of that is in form of a beautiful and
inspiring piece of art.
If I have to give some of the examples of writers and their city as an inspiration in their
literature then I can’t forget R.K Narayan from India who was inspired by his village and
created his own fictional village ‘MALGUDI’ and different characters. Another writer
Jhumpa Lahiri, written a book - THE INTERPRETER Of MALADIES which is a
collection of nine stories based on lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are lost
between the two cultures. GOD OF SMALL THINGS written by Arundhati Roy which is
her debut novel. It is about how small things make a large difference in people’s lives and
behaviour.
Everyone experiences something new in their life, something different. The only thing is
that writers create a jewel from these experiences. They tell the story of these experiences
through their writings. They peel off their imagination layer by layer like an onion and take

the audience to the core of it where the audience feels a direct connection with there
imagination, no matter it is real or fictional. And all this magic is possible because the writer
has experienced the surroundings with great dedication and compassion. These inspirations
had taken the literature to a great height. It allowed the creators to think in different
directions, to see things differently and as result the come up with a great content which is
newly born, interesting and heart touching. I think I can relate to it. When I am walking
towards my hostel after my classes are over, there are lots of things going into my mind by
observing the different things happening in my surroundings. These things used to shape my
thinking and sometimes I find something creative something different out of it.
Every road takes you to its new story, every wall has a story written on it, every tree
shades it’s version of story, every eye has its own tale. These differences are grabbed by the
writers and he/she tells us a new kind of story inspired by all the above. And the writings of
different writers hints the reader about his/her native place. The difference in their style,
language, way of expressing things all denotes the place they belong to. Sometimes writers
also inspire by some other place or city because of its attractive history and culture. These
types of inspiration help the writers as well as provide the readers with an opportunity to be a
part of a new story, a new journey of a city and many characters.