Calcutta – ‘the thing to see is the city itself’

15th March 2018

I was delighted to find this evocative article about Calcutta (Kolkata) by Kushanava Choudhury, writing in Holidaymag.

I have never been to India but the writer paints an intoxicating picture of this fascinating city on the sub-continent, and invites the reader to understand vibrant Calcutta through all the senses.

TripFiction aims to help readers see a location though an author’s eyes, so let’s indulge in some literary wanderlust together.

‘Begin in Shobhabazar and Bagbazar – the heart of old North Calcutta – which was home to the 18th and 19th century Bengali elite. In the morning there are plenty of sweet shops to have breakfast, like Nabin Das in Bagbazar — where you can have savoury singaras and sweet rossogollas and then find a tea shop round the corner to wash it all down. If you’re lucky you will trample through the fresh fish and vegetables bazars that set up shop right on the street, at foot level, in the morning hours and end up on Chitpur Road, the oldest street in Calcutta, older than the city itself, a street divided into countless commercial zones, each one selling something unique, from jewelry to strongboxes to sex.’

The Mulberry Empire by Philip Hensher is set in Kabul, Calcutta and London, and weaves a story of an ambitious young Scot making his way through the world in the turbulent 19th century.

And in Calcutta: Two Years in the City author Amit Chaudhuri’s memoir tells of returning to the city of his birth. Using the historic elections of 2011 as a fulcrum, Chaudhuri looks back to the nineteenth century, when the city burst with a new vitality, and towards the twenty-first, when – utterly changed – it seems to be on the verge of another turn. Along the way he evokes all that is most particular and extraordinary. From the homeless and the working class to the old, declining haute bourgeois: from the new malls and hotels to old houses being destroyed by developers: from politicians on their way out to the city’s fitful attempts to embrace globalisation, Calcutta brings a multifarious universe to life.

‘In Calcutta, one should eat like kings and walk like paupers. At Bhojohori Manna, one of the best joints of Bengali food, order plates of luchis, which are fluffy breads served with vegetables or meat stew, and then rice and curries and fish. Be warned that the fish will have bones and you will have to use your fingers, Bengali style, unless you know how to debone fish with a knife and fork like the Bengali babus of yore who weren’t allowed to use their fingers when dining in front of their English bosses.’

Food is always an integral part of travel for me, and I can almost smell the fluffy luchis on offer in this part of Calcutta. In his travelogue The Epic City, Kushanava Choudhury – writer of the Holidaymag article – again uses food to lure readers into the city: shouting hawkers still overran the footpaths, fish-sellers squatted on bazaar floors; politics still meant barricades and bus burnings, while Communist ministers travelled in motorcades. Sifting through the chaos for the stories that never make the papers, Kushanava Choudhury paints a soulful, compelling portrait of the everyday lives that make Calcutta. Written with humanity, wit and insight, The Epic City is an unforgettable portrait of an era, and a city which is a world unto itself.

‘The city was the capital of the British Empire from 1757 to 1911. The centers of colonial power are in the old “White Town”. You should take the time to walk the streets of Dalhousie, now renamed BBD Bagh. This is where all the old colonial government buildings, quietly turned into new post-colonial government buildings, are located.’ 

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee, a historical crime novel, perfectly captures the end-of-empire era in the city. Captain Sam Wyndham, former Scotland Yard detective, is a new arrival to Calcutta. Desperately seeking a fresh start after his experiences during the Great War, Wyndham has been recruited to head up a new post in the police force. But with barely a moment to acclimatise to his new life or to deal with the ghosts which still haunt him, Wyndham is caught up in a murder investigation that will take him into the dark underbelly of the British Raj.

‘There is nothing to see in Calcutta, because there is everything to see in Calcutta. The thing to see is the city itself.’

Andrew for the TripFiction Team

There are other books on the TripFiction database set in Calcutta and hopefully they, together with Kushanava Choudhury’s wonderful article, will transport us all to India through the magic of literature.

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For more books set in Calcutta, just access the TripFiction Database

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