Get a sense of how cities work while having some fun, at Bengaluru's City Scripts 2023 fest

The city that author Annie Zaidi sets her tale in is Mumbai in 'City of Incident: A Novel in Twelve Parts'. But when she peeled the layers surrounding her characters at a webinar organised by City Scripts 2023 in Bengaluru, you could tell her collection of stories is an ode to a notion of a city rather than a geographically-defined space.

"I think of cities primarily as people’s spaces and not so much as geography or an urban plan. Most of our interactions in the city are with people whom we see only once. Or there are people whom we know for a long time... I wanted to write something that captures the emotional quality of a city where connections are constantly happening but are fleeting,” she explained while reading chapters from her book on May 26.

The eighth edition of City Scripts, being organised by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), began with the author in conversation – Zaidi chatted with Bengaluru-based scientist and fiction writer Indira Chandrasekhar.

City Scripts is an attempt to unfold new narratives about the 'city' through panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions as well as live interactions with authors who turned their experiences of cities into successful books.

The idea of occupying and using space as a medium to tell stories was further explored in one of the panel discussions. The speakers talked about how existence and experience in these spaces, and the spaces in between can be used to write, reflect and move beyond binary identities.

During the course of the event, panels will also discuss public spaces, trees and communities that make up a city. This year, the workshops include sessions on creative writing as well as monotype printing.

City Scripts 2023 will also see exhibitions exploring the idea of a city – Vasane, Zubaan Video Installation, City Bolti Hai (The City Speaks), The Sacred and the Public and Fields of View (only on May 27).

Of these, Vasane deals with Bengaluru specifically. The project came into existence because of the belief of artist Indu Anthony that unlike cities like Mumbai and Chennai, Bengaluru does not yet have a distinct smell. Anthony also believes that anybody who enters a new city tries to connect with it with their senses as this helps build a bond and a deeper sense of citizenship.

The visitors are also given a chance to understand how complex managing a city is -- through specially-designed games. For instance, on May 27, the visitors designed his or her dream city. But through the course of the game, they learnt the factors to consider in order to build a city with equitable access to resources.

Another game, Hanigalu ("water droplet" in Kannada), is a digital simulation, where participants plan the water usage patterns of the fictional city, Paanipura. The game was built on real data of water usage patterns in Bengaluru.

The event will conclude with a fun quiz on Sunday, May 28 at 7.30 PM.