India, July 17 -- The anthology spans 37 Indian cities, featuring 375 poems by 264 poets translated by 90 translators across 20 languages. What was the inspiration behind this anthology and what were the challenges of curating poems spanning over 1500 years?

The inspiration really came from a personal place - homesickness, mostly. I was born and raised in Mumbai, and while studying at Yale in the US, I began to miss the city with a kind of quiet ache. That longing naturally found its way into my own writing, and I started seeking out city poems. Initially, these poems were Mumbai-specific, just for my own comfort. But, as I read further, the collection grew: first Delhi, then Kolkata, Chennai, Srinagar. I became fascinated by how each In...