My City:Calcutta-Part II

Our administrators say that they will make our city akin to London,but do we seriously need another London?The squalor that greets the centuries old streets has become a close friend,the stench could be bottled and sold on the Champs Elysee as some kind of retro perfume that reminds of an older age when sanitation even in welfare states was a misnomer!

One bursts out of the cloying streets onto the banks of the majestic Hooghly,a broad brown serpent lazily turning towards the Bay of Bengal a few hundred kilometres down the road,its current like muscles beneath the water.When crossing from one bank to the other on rickety steamers i used to sometimes catch a glimpse of a porpoise or river dolphin,alas the pollution has killed them mostly.No fancy yachts or ships just a few fishermen in their row boats reminding of times when the jungle must have grown right down to the banks and the Tigers would have come to the water's edge for a drink.

The Victoria Memorial,the National Library,The Mint,Fort William-buildings from Calcutta's colonial past,of the exploits of Hastings,Cornwallis,Curzon,Bentinck-the birth of a city and of institutions that still endure.

The Maidan-on a monsoon afternoon,glowing green in the rain with the far corners enveloped in mist adding a multi-dimensional quality,a space to walk barefeet on the grass,Calcutta's own Hyde Park.The horse drawn buggies that a century ago must have been a rage!Now alas the horses side drooping with hunger and a mule like staunchness that transfers itself to the inhabitants.

The butchers on the road give new meaning to "fresh meat",the cacophony of traffic-is it dust or petrol fumes that rise into the atmosphere?

Yet...

The only city that has produced Tagore,Jagadish Chandra Bose,Mother Teresa,Netaji Subhas,Ramanujam and Amartya Sen.Where there is a street that only houses book shops-College Street.Where street theatre was born and Satyajit Ray gave us science fiction in Bengali.

Its true the city you live in trasfers a bit of itself into your soul.It has in me.Calcutta will always be Calcutta to me,i do not want another London.

A large city cannot be experientially known; its life is too manifold for any individual to be able to participate in it-Aldous Huxley

Oh Calcutta!My Park Street

Unfortunately,I was born a few years after the heydays of the "Flower Power"revolution and the time when Park Street never slept!When I started working in ANZ Grindlays Bank i met a gentleman called Mr P N Malhotra,who then owned the Blue Fox,an iconic restaurant that gave India-Pam Crain,Eric Segal as well as Usha Uthup(she began at Trincas).His joi d'vivre was a throwback to those hedonistic days which he would dwell upon.

So too Mr Wadhwa,manager of Trincas that was the jazz and blues centre of Calcutta.I am told that a new documentary is being made about Carlton Kito,the jazz maestro who played with legends like Dizzy Gillespie.

Music was but just a single symphony of what was the heart of Calcutta.The pop up restaurants of Chinatown serving beer without license along with steaming dim sum,the Mughal food of Nizams,mixed with the authentic bengali fish curry and rice.Live music and the Samba taught by the other Kito.

I must mention that Bengal has produced more rockers and its the only place that has rock music being played in the local Bengali language.Its sad that the Waldorf has moved from its original location on park Street to a side street but that is where I had my introduction to chinese food and chilly crabs!

I wanted to write about Calcutta,instead I have written an ode to Park Street....a lot more to write about yet...