Calcutta!

 

          It was high time to see Calcutta, (you say Kolkata, I say Calcutta), where many of my students grew up and refined their taste for street food, fresh water fish cooked with mustard seed oil, Satyajit Ray films, Tagore's poetry and a lifestyle that puts a premium on endless conversations (a pastime known as adda) and cups of cha and so, so many sweets.  Calcutta is beautiful the way Venice and other once glorious cities are beautiful; so much of it is in a romantic state of disrepair or ruin; no thanks to a long spell of communist rule that ended six years ago, according to some folks. Old Calcutta, in particular, is mesmerizing: Women sitting behind wrought-iron window grills. Men sudsing up under pumps that deliver the Ganges to the streets, roasting peanuts in bowls of hot sand and repurposing tin into tidy little boxes. Crazy-crowded markets where vendors shout relentlessly for your attention. Lots of schmoozing outside tea stalls and street food outlets where customers snack on puchkas, (hollow, bite-size rounds of fried bread filled with a savory potato mixture and dipped in tamarind water), and dozens of other miniature feasts. Banyan trees bursting out of walls and sidewalks. Shuttered art deco cinemas that have conceded to multiplexes. Grizzled migrants from North India pulling rickshaws (although manually-drawn rickshaws are supposedly against the law.) And more.      

Roasting peanuts

 Tinsmith alley

       

  At the same time, central Calcutta felt more Western than Chennai or other cities I've visited in India. Perhaps because of the lingering presence of the Raj and wealth of colonial architecture mixed with a more permissive urban culture that doesn't instantly condemn a woman for wearing tight jeans or shorts. Not that you're aren't likely to get stopped by an "aunty" on the tram or bus who will insist that you put on your dupatta (all- purpose scarf for covering up one's chest or head, for modesty's sake. And I did see a male pedestrian nonchalantly pat the behind of a passing woman, a reminder of a common scourge of public life in India.   It was a kaleidoscopic week, devoted as much to meeting friends and friends of friends as official sightseeing. Attended a book launch at the Oxford bookstore for "India & Lithuania: A Personal Bond." Who knew? Gandhi doesn't come to mind when I think of my ancestors' flight from Lithuania. Nevertheless, it was a decorous occasion with words by dignitaries from both countries, including the governor of West Bengal.

 

                                                                                Governor of West Bengal, Keshari Nath Tripathi, in the white hair.      Adding to my quirky itinerary was an art opening featuring a painting of Mother Teresa for every sign of the zodiac, followed by dinner at the Rotary Club.   

Mother Teresa art opening at the ITC Sonar hotel

   Sauntered through the South Park Cemetery, where elaborate tombs commemorate the short lives of British colonialists.

South Park Cemetery 

 

  Spent a day with my former ACJ student Indrajit, whose knowledge of American literature and Westerns puts me to shame. (Sorry, no pics.) We visited Victoria Hall, a monument to the eponymous queen that wasn't completed until after India's capital moved Calcutta to Delhi in 1911.

Victoria Hall dome

    We had lunch in Tangra, one of Calcutta's two Chinatowns, this one a hub for restaurants and leather tanning operations. (Odd combination.)  We spent the evening at Indrajit's home in the leafy neighborhood of Ballygunge, where I was treated to a Bengali feast of fish and vegetables and rasgulla, little balls of a kind of cottage cheese simmered in syrup.        Took two walking tours through the heart of the old city. 

Mailboxes outside an old Calcutta home where extended families still live.

     

From the courtyard of a grand Calcutta residence

 

     Can't resist market shots. This woman claimed she was married to the young vendor who works next to her. He wasn't so sure about that.  

 

                                                                                           Millets

   

Skinny house

 

 

Turmeric                                         

Stopped for Mishti doi, a Bengali sweet yogurt, served a small clay pots.  

 (Internet image)    

Mango and ice cream for dessert at Peter Cat, an expat institution.

     

                                       Rickshaw and dog at rest.      Found Nahoum's Jewish bakery in New Market and bought one of its famous fruitcakes. 

   

Tea time

 

Balloon street (in wholesale market)

Emblem of the All India Trinamool Congress, the party led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

  Calcutta is often held up as a paragon of diversity, where Hindus, Parsis, Jews, Chinese, Portuguese, Armenians have lived side by side, although over time, foreign populations have dwindled considerably.   

 

                             

Chinese temple                          

Few Jews remain in Calcutta to form a minyan, but several beautiful synagogues are maintained by Muslim caretakers.

           

   Jump to "White Town," the center of British rule in India, built by the East India Company. Constructed from medieval ruins transported by river, St. John's Church, the city's oldest British-built structure, was completed in 1787. This is where Job Charnok, the trader credited with founding Calcutta, is buried. It is also the site of the "Black Hole Monument," a tribute to British soldiers who were tossed into their own brig in Fort William by the army of the Nawab of Bengal in 1756. 

St. John's

Job Charnock lies here

Pipe organ in St. John's                            

   

No time to see College Street, the Indian Coffee House (adda central), the Writers' Building (built by the East India Company and now the offices of the West Bengal state government, although vacant for renovations), Tagore's home, ride the tram or a ferry on the Ganges. I did get to watch on the roof of my hotel as five employees sawed open my room safe, which broke down with my passport and cash inside.