Our built environment (man-made surroundings such as buildings, muhalla, cities, gardens, etc.) has a power to invoke various types of emotions among human beings. These emotions could be of happiness, sorrow, fear, anger, surprise and joy. In nineteenth and twentieth century Urdu literature, writers associate nostalgic feelings with the built environment in the subcontinent. These feelings provide us with insights into the contemporary culture and human emotions due to the changing political and social realities. By focusing on three cultural centres of the subcontinent, Lucknow, Delhi and Lahore, this article proposes that nineteenth and twentieth century Urdu literature is an important tool to explain the power of buildings to invoke nostalgic feelings among humans.