Over a thousand kilometres away in Kolkata, Soumyadeep Roy, who began organising heritage and art tours in 2015, often surprises people when he reveals that Asia’s first newspaper (1780), the first-ever museum in India (1814) and the world’s very first fingerprint bureau (1897) can all be traced back to the City of Joy. Roy’s favourite neighbourhood, Chitpur, appears to be preserved in time, filled with jewellers, wood carvers, confectioners, kebab makers, perfumers, bookbinders, sculptors and calligraphers whose practices have been handed down over centuries. Yet most citizens remain unaware, like I was once ignorant to the striped tiger butterflies, palash trees, deer and leopards of Aarey Colony, only 15 minutes from my apartment.
It’s impossible to bring up Indian cities today without invoking AQI or redevelopment, without teetering through streets resembling archaeological sites. Each city seems ruthless, stripped of the features that once made it livable, unique: the trees of Aarey slashed to make a metro shed, the trams of Kolkata limited, the Mughal-era havelis of Delhi fallen into ruin. Yet as we seek, the city expands, revealing infinitesimal secret worlds that exist within: the trees of Aarey draped with veils of green vines, the caretakers of a dargah in Delhi whose families have lived there for 800 years, otters on Goa’s Chorao island who have supposedly developed working relationships with local fishermen. In my walks around Mumbai, my ambition transforms. Who wants to excel at some rigged corporate game when I can instead learn to recognise a plant by name, drift through ancient lanes I know like the back of my hand and pinpoint the best ganne ka ras stall in the city?
To love something, we must first belong. And to belong, we must walk. “With each walk, the city acknowledges me in nods, smiles, side-please, shrugs, one cup of tea, looking away quickly, whistles, cat calls, hooded stares, asked directions, offered directions… and I begin to answer the city,” writes Meera Ganapathi in her book How to Forget. “I belong to the city now.”
This story appears in Vogue India’s July-August 2026 issue. Subscribe here.
Also read:
I became a tour guide for a friend visiting Mumbai—and fell in love with the city again
Walking in an unwalkable city taught me more about self-care than a gym workout
What we lose when the city snatches away our walking spaces
