On the second day of Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2026 at the NCPA, poet and lyricist Gulzar returned to the festival for “Ek Shayar Iss Sheher Mein: A Poet’s Love Letter to His City”. He was in conversation with scholar and translator Rakhshanda Jalil, with screenwriter and lyricist Kausar Munir in the chair.
Aamchi Mumbai: My City in Stories and Poems
Gulzar read from his new volume, Aamchi Mumbai: My City in Stories and Poems, written in Urdu and translated into English by Dr Jalil. The conversation moved through his long relationship with the city, from its changing identity and its people to its seasons and the realities of migrant life, a kind of “Mumbai darshan” told through poetry and stories.
“I have learnt and changed with Mumbai. We have changed Mumbai also. I have tasted the salt in Mumbai’s air,” he said, describing how that salt seeps into everything he writes about the city, and how the book is his homage to it.
On how observation shapes his work, he said: “I live here. If you see something, you definitely think about it. Whatever I see is related to life. So, to feel it and reach it, I personify and humanise my observations.”
Translating Gulzar’s voice
Rakhshanda Jalil spoke about the challenge of carrying his voice into English: “Two distinct features of Gulzar Saab’s work are imagery and the way he talks through images and his voice. He has a childlike quality, a whimsicality of his own. For a translator, capturing this essence is very challenging. It is not just about craft or vocabulary. His voice is very distinctive.”
Kausar Munir added that the book is more than a romantic tribute: “There is a truth to it, there is a lived reality to it rather than a romanticised version of Mumbai.”
Also from the festival: Javed Akhtar on Kabir, Three Masters and why AI cannot replace creative writing, and our preview of Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2026.
Disclaimer: The images used in this article have been provided to The Daily Brunch by Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest.
