Cities acquire a name and a character based on the people that inhabit them. Cities develop ‘human’ traits and inherit the genes of their people. They are  born, they bloom, they age and apparently die too.

Like cities acquire character through its people, residents of a city also take on the spirit of the city. In India, famous poets have made their identity synonymous with cities like Daag 'Dehelvi', Jigar 'Muradabadi', Josh 'Malihabadi', Saahir 'Ludhianvi', Majruh 'Sultanpuri'.

This relation through the nom de plume between the city and its poet was not merely one of identity or obligation but reflected the love and belongingness the poets had with their cities. Cities provided anchors around which individual identity could be built while being grounded in a collective existence.

Even today, cities continue to be spaces where individual experiences can flourish. Cities  allow for cultivation of all aspects of human faculties including mind, body, spirit, and material. Despite the individuality that cities guarantee, they also provide a society where diverse people come together and develop a commonality. 

A city and its citizens also develop a commonality and together forge a symbiotic identity. This joint identity could be manifested as creative, innovative, smart, playable, passionate, adventurous and so on.

In our travels, we hope to come across some such cities and citizens and experience the identities they have created individually and together and how the identities are imprinted in time and space.