"Calcutta If You Must Exile Me" is the best known single poem of the renowned Indian English poet and media personality Pritish Nandy. The poem is widely anthologised in major Indian English poetry collections and is regarded as a pioneering classic in modern Indian English writing. The poem is remarkable for its breathless tempo, vivid imagery and unsuppressed angst at societal decadence. The poem is addressed to the Indian city of Kolkata, although not in eulogical terms.

Excerpts from the poem

Calcutta if you must exile me wound my lips before I go

only words remain and the gentle touch of your fingers on my

lips Calcutta burn my eyes before I go into the night

the headless corpse in a Dhakuria bylane the battered youth his brains

blown out and the silent vigil that takes you to Pataldanga lane

where they will gun you down without vengeance or hate

Calcutta If You Must Exile Me