This chapter crystallises the contours of the immaterial city by focusing on the common urban imaginaries thatimaginary city inform the psycho-socialpsycho-social makeup of the city. Dhaka is conditioned by two spectral cities from different temporal and spatial orders—the temporal other, or theDhaka remembered city, and the spatial other, or the ruralised city—that are crucial to the invisible order regulating our otherwise unwieldy urban reality. On both levels, the basic operational tools deployed remain the same: differences and absences, which include, but are not limited to, everything Dhaka is not, lacks, and aspires to be. Thus, the past in the form of these invisible cities from “elsewhere” remains retrievable and accessible to the dwellers in the present, actively implicated in quotidian imaginative practices, forming an integral part of the urbanthe urban social reality of Dhaka. Residents' frequent excursions to these cities are not simply acts of emotional indulgence; they follow their own internal logic and serve a dual purpose. First, as a coping mechanism, they ameliorate the dystopian present by keeping negativity at bay. Second, they act as a critical lens for evaluating the present, offering both impetus and raw material for imagining a different future. Driven by both dissatisfaction with the current reality and a desire for change, this active engagement with the past generates creative and ethical challenges to the present rather than flinching from it. Unlike the formal city’s regressive, nostalgic involvement with the past, this nostalgic involvement is progressive, providing resources for reimagining the future.