From Joie De Vivre to Huzun: Kashinath's Banaras to Pamuk's Istanbul

The paper endeavours to study two cities, Banaras and Istanbul via two writers who truly love them and have immortalised them in their writings. Banaras has been analysed through the work of Kashinath Singh (Kashi Ka Assi) and Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk. Both writers are differentin almost all theaspects: their approach, love and languages and yet it is the love of city and the passion with which they write unites them. There might be more dissimilarities than similarities in their works but as a scholar who has studied them both, I would like to bring out what unites them. Both the texts are all encompassing and cover varied aspects of the cities and the writers’ life; but I have attempted to limit the paper to the study of the temperament of the cities as captured by these writers. It is an ambitious study as a paper cannot justify the spirit of these cities but an attempt has been made to study the flavour of these cities: joie de vivre to huzun.