Jawaharlal Nehru, in The Discovery of India (1946), justly describes Clive as having won the battle of Plassey "by promoting treason and forgery", and pointedly notes that British rule in India had "an unsavory beginning and something of that bitter taste has clung to it ever since."
After an unsavory start the British, consolidated their hold in Bengal and thus was born the City of Calcutta.
If not for an alert tram driver, you would probably not be reading this piece. My first memories of Calcutta,are of being struck a glancing blow, by a tram amidst much clanging of bells, as a young cadet.Calcutta is the only city in India to have trams & they had not registered to my young mind, resulting in me standing on the tracks & staring at the scenes that wafted by.
I'd heard a lot about the city,from my parents,who had spent some of the best moments of their life there and to be honest, the city was a bit of a let down. The crowds, the pollution, the city all dug up ( for the metro )were what registered first, when I got there, after suffering a traffic jam on the Hoogly Bridge!
Since then some of my best friends live in Calcutta & I learnt much of the nuances of ship handling on the Hoogly.Another strong memory, is my wandering into, a restaurant on the Park street & seeing a gent, in a faded black tuxedo, with a bow tie, blowing on a gleaming trumpet. Straight out of the Raj.Indeed, if one Indian city has retained memories of the Raj, it is Calcutta & its babus more than any other Indian city.
The Saffron, in the Park Hotel, served the best Mughlai food, as far as i'm concerned and the post dinner Kulfi, topped with strawberry syrup is simply divine.Every time I dined there the chef would come & chat me up for a while. Very polite & unhurried, as Rabindro Sangeet clung to the air, like fragrance ( I'm turning poetic )
The trip down the Hoogly, to Haldia & the Bay of Bengal is wonderful...........The villages flash by and if one is not careful your ship can be boarded by thieves, who will strip your deck of anything valuable in a fraction of a moment. This stopped after a while when a Russian Captain shot a few thieves!
Another sight that you will not get anywhere else, is the human powered rickshaw. Appropriate transport for the crowded Calcutta, by lanes.
My most enduring memory of Calcutta..................
Missing a flight, because I could not exit the Park hotel, as a crowd went down Park Street, chanting 'Cholche Na, Cholbe Na'. I cursed Calcutta and its inhabitants, but that would be doing it a disservice, as I have some wonderful memories of the city and its inhabitants.
Why did I write this piece? I made my last trip to Calcutta, on this day.........and miss Calcutta and navigating down the Hoogly, in the fog. An unparalleled thrill!
And do we see a shift from 'Hobe Na' to 'Korbo Lorbo re, jitbo re, jitbo re'. I like to believe that Calcutta is getting its second wind!
8 comments:
Calcutta .. well people have told me their varied experiences and personally i would like to visit that city just to experience the serenity which Rabindranath Tagore talks about
rasugula..sandesh and fuchka are also kolkata's ingredients..just like hooghly bridge and hand pulled rickshaws:) have only seen it in movies..but would visit this metro soon as many of my friends at alliance are from kolkata..may be i will get a chance to see it for myself:)
You should........... Calcutta has been stripped of much of its past glory by the regressive policies that the Communists followed.
If you do not progress, you degenerate is a good line for the city.
Fantastic article...
Loved It....
Sir, I have done my grad from Calcutta, and I can correlate with each and every thing mentioned in this article.
I like the way you described the city.. It sounds like a charismatic black-and-white movie that has winds blowing at its own whims and fancies.
Like every other city Calcutta or Kolkata has its own pros and cons although I still wish that the city develops the ability to attract outsiders so that their deep-rooted established norms and lifestyle are challenged and also shaken a little!
As for the classics and the cuisine they are still among the leaders..
Radz, you cannot have everything.........
Calcutta, has a beauty in its decay & I guess you will have to live with that......
there's a generation here that's trying to break out of the shackles of the past. lets hope we manage.
i hope we manage to do that without letting the city turn into ultra modern superfast city. we, for good or bad, are rather laid back.
lovely article. come back to this city again someday if you can.
thank you...........hope to someday!
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