In the quiet bylanes of Krishnappa Garden, Bengaluru, stands a space that defies conventional categorisation. At once a home, an architectural studio, and a precious repository of urban India's written history, the Urbs Indis Library is a unique publicly accessible collection of rare books in India, carefully curated by architect and writer Robert Stephens.
In this City Scripts session, we invite you to hear Robert share the story of this library, completed in October 2024, where traditional elements like dry masonry wells and century-old reclaimed teak wood harmonise with contemporary solar energy systems and natural water treatment plants. The library embodies a dialogue between historical documentation and living space, and between personal and public memory.
In the quiet bylanes of Krishnappa Garden, Bengaluru, stands a space that defies conventional categorisation. At once a home, an architectural studio, and a precious repository of urban India's written history, the Urbs Indis Library is a unique publicly accessible collection of rare books in India, carefully curated by architect and writer Robert Stephens.
In this City Scripts session, we invite you to hear Robert share the story of this library, completed in October 2024, where traditional elements like dry masonry wells and century-old reclaimed teak wood harmonise with contemporary solar energy systems and natural water treatmentplants. The library embodies a dialogue between historical documentation and living space, and between personal and public memory.
The year-long curation of City Scripts will delve into the profound roots of our personal and public memories, histories and narratives through fiction, collections, archives, cultural practices and more.
Imagine the city as our collective garden. We nurture the seeds of our personal stories, carrying them with us and planting them in our neighbourhoods and backyards. There is always more to experience in a garden: entangled roots of our past, yellowing leaves falling with time, and the green tendrils of new ideas. Â
The year-long curation of City Scripts will delve into the profound roots of our personal and public memories, histories and narratives through fiction, collections, archives, cultural practices and more.
Imagine the city as our collective garden. We nurture the seeds of our personal stories, carrying them with us and planting them in our neighbourhoods and backyards. There is always more to experience in a garden: entangled roots of our past, yellowing leaves falling with time, and the green tendrils of new ideas. Â
Past Sessions
Past Speakers
Annie Zaidi
Annie Zaidi
Annie Zaidi is the author of ‘City of Incident,’ ‘Prelude to a Riot’ which received the Tata Literature Live Award for fiction (2020), and the editor of ‘Unbound: 2000 Years of Indian Women’s Writing’. She received the Nine Dots Prize in 2019 for an essay that was developed into ‘Bread, Cement, Cactus: A memoir of belonging and dislocation’. Other published work includes a novella ‘Gulab’, a collection of short stories ‘Love Stories # 1 to 14’, and a collection of essays ‘Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales’.
Arunava Sinha
Arunava Sinha
Arunava Sinha translates Bengali fiction and poetry into English. His recent and forthcoming translations include Kunal Basu's The Endgame, Bani Basu’s Moom, Taslima Nasreen's Shameless, Ashoke Mukhopadhyay’s A Ballad of Remittent Fever, and Akhteruzzaman Elias’s Khwabnama.
Dhanya Rajendran
Dhanya Rajendran
Dhanya Rajendran is a co-founder and the editor-in-chief of The News Minute, a digital publication that covers south India. In a journalism career spanning 19 years, Dhanya has a body of work focussing on politics, human rights, gender-based violence, and disaster coverage. In just eight years, Dhanya’s news portal The News Minute has become a leading, comprehensive source for breaking news reports and crucial stories from south Indian states, driven by the editor-in-chief’s passion for ground reporting and storytelling. A fiery leader, Dhanya was named one of the best entrepreneurs in the country in Fortune’s 40 under 40 list. She and The News Minute have won several awards for their sensitive and courageous reportage. Before founding The News Minute, Dhanya worked as the South India head for the English news channel Times Now and reported extensively from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. She is a graduate of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ).
Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari
Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari
Author • Writer • Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari lives in a small town called Areekode, near Calicut, Kerala. He completed his BA from Aligarh Muslim University and MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Chronicle of an Hour and a Half is his first novel.
Shrayana Bhattacharya
Shrayana Bhattacharya
Shrayana Bhattacharya is a Senior Economist in the World Bank’s Social Protection and Jobs Practice for South Asia. She trained in development economics at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her book 'Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence' has recently been awarded the Times of India AutHer Prize for Best Non-Fiction for 2021; the SKOCH India Economic Forum Prize for Best Public Policy Book 2021 and the FICCI Ladies Organization Prize for Young Achievement in Literature in 2021.
Suresh Jayaram
Suresh Jayaram
Suresh Jayaram is an artist, art historian, arts administrator, and curator from Bangalore. He is the Founder and Director of Visual Art Collective/1.Shanthiroad Studio, an international artist's residency and alternative art space in Bangalore. He is involved in art practice, urban mapping, archiving, curation, and arts education. His keen interest in environmental and urban developmental issues influences his work. He is the author of 'Bangalore's Lalbagh - A Chronicle of the Garden and the City'.