As India Builds (Part 8)
In the front portico, several cousins assembled around Wall Street banker, Ronti’s Blackberry and marveled. As I joined them, ones eyes darted to me. “You probably have one of these?” “Sure, I have a Treo,” I replied, my eyes glazing over the Blackberry, to focus on the marble staircase on which, at four, I fell and broke all my front teeth. I noticed cracks on the marble.
We gathered for music and poetry, Raja played the Piano, Aveek the Harmonium. They led the group through song after song from Tagore’s abundant repertoire – the songs of our childhood, the music of our culture. Deesha, bored, cell phone in her ear, sat at a distance, chatting with her boyfriend. Her body here, but only physically; in her mind she fled as I have all my life, been fleeing from Elgin Road. In many ways, this evening, for me, was a very personal celebration of loss. There is a primal cord that holds us all to what we knew as children. Is it this table full of delicious food that we have shared on so many occasions? Is it these antique mirrors that have reflected back at us both our growth and our limitations? Is it this staircase that we have climbed and descended, into and out of, the bosom of the house?
Much as I fought for twenty years to create my own identity that had absolutely nothing to do with my family, my own independent success narrative, that night I came to Elgin Road to acknowledge. I came to forgive. To accept. Even rejoice.
The spirits of our dead watched, as we made peace. They shook their heads. They smiled. Maybe they apologized.
And the House? Was it listening to this noise and rupture of family? Was it able to forget the demolition from all corners of Calcutta?
Another House on the Ganges that perhaps has a story to tell
This segment is part 8 in a 8 part series
Jump to part: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Hi,
Reading this article was like walking down memory lane for me too for a different city in India.It was very nostlagic.
I would say your writing skills are very touching ,realistic and Excellent in addition to your Interviews that you take.Kindly continue the good work.The Article made you feel sad on the way The Architectural /heritage houses being brought down and giving ways to skyscrapers.I have watched something very similar in my life.Makes you feel sad and we tried to do best to hold back and keep some things which we could.Wish the old and the modern could exist in peace.A wonderful coexistence of the good of the past with some things of the new.My Observation with regards to my bengali friends in US/India have been that they are voracious readers and have some great thought process.Bengali literature is phenomenal.Tagore work is great and Ya i would say that in terms of reading and writing bengalis are among the best.
Thanks for the touching article and it hits a raw nerve. My family lives in a 75 year old house in Hyderabad, which fits the bill of a frightened old bride in the midst of Patriarchs. I would probably now call it the widow in white of erstwhile trying to survive through her lifetime. Now surrounded by a concrete mass I think we are fighting a losing battle… To be fair, to folks who let go, such homes are unwieldy and a fortune to maintain in present day India. The joy of keeping the memories alive does not make up for the pain and cost of maintaining such places…where are the 15 servants for 15 family members that you mention? Unfortunately folks like us in India are stuck in the transition generation where we neither have the dedicated manpower nor affordable technology to maintain such places. As it stands very few stubborn dedicated souls will be able to bear the cross and preserve this heritage for our next generations. For us to make the change more similar minded folks have to come together to make a conscious effort to preserve what’s left.
Yes, these properties are extremely difficult and expensive to maintain. And no, there is no easy solution.
If you could, try and syndicate this article to Desh Patrika. Maybe some translation is required. One of those rare pieces about Kolkata as we knew it. Another thing Sramana, please try to reach out to more people back home — notwithstanding all the recent trimuphs Kolkata has had (you know Infy is coming over etc) the picture for the average middle class Bengali who’s not into new age economy remains much the same. You most likely won’t get more business if 2000 Kolkata teens flocked your site but you are precisely the type who’d have an impact on their career and life choices. Think about it.
Hi Arpan,
I really have no time to chase Desh, so if you can find me an email address to the editor, I am willing to engage. I sent them 3 of my Bengali pieces some years back, but never heard back. I have no patience for slow channels right now.
As for reaching the Bengali teens … again, while I have interest, there are no obvious channels to do so on the Internet.
Are you based in Calcutta, by the way?
Sramana
Hi Sramana,
I am based in Hyderabad. I work for Mentor in the capacity of Senior Staff Member. I love reading your posts (although I may not always agree with your views) and Desh I find is only a shade of the past. Unable to decide whether to adopt to the changing times or rubbish it. Maybe the glorification of poverty is too romantic a theme to let go, I don’t know. I would try and see if there’s anything I can do by trying to track the editor mail.
Arpan
Thanks, Arpan. What you say above is largely true about a lot of Bengal, not just Desh Patrika, unfortunately.
Thanks Sramana-Reading this piece brought be back to my childhood memories in calcutta during 70s and 80s- growing up in our ancestral home on Harish Mukherjee Road. Many of the old houses on that road have given way to ‘flats’. Which leaves me thinking – can Calcutta (or India) be saved? from degrading environment (I mean pollution), society, culture, infrastructure (a few malls doesnt contitute infrastructure!) and when I get there this year-end with my one-year old, I wonder what Tata Nano would have done to add more congestion to Harish Mukherjee Road!
However, one silver lining-I think Desh has maintained its standard over the years…I still enjoy Desh regularly at New York and the new and young and budding and ameteur writers in bengali have kept the language alive !!!
Ananda Publishers have an office here in NY. It is called House of Ananda.
Hi Saramana, I am new to your blog and found it very interesting. I am from Hyderabad and settled in New Jersey for 15 years. I could see a dramatic change in Hyd since 1990 and present. I would attribute the change to the opportunist political system which has indulged in a chaotic progress, lured by money. Generation today in India are growing up with impatience and influence. I am not saying this is bad, but it is a giant leap to progress and I am concerned things taking a u-turn.
The Europeans could maintain their ancestral home(though Italians are selling them now to the Americans) because they used all their power and fought tooth and nails to stay in the country. Though this is a cliche, the decendents of the Bengali families who enjoyed all those lands, property, people before the partition, never gave anything back to Bengal.
Most of the times they took the easy way out. Used the money they had to settle abroad. The way most aristrocrats of Kolkata did in British time, supported British and lived happily. All the revolutionaries came from the middle class background.
Q. Why the old patriarchs of the family engaged themselves in lawsuits?
Ans. Because they were either lazy or incapable to earn a good living and thus maintaining the property they had. If not improve, atleast maintain. Most of these people drank alcohol day and night including the people of the great families you have mentioned.
Many of these people are my relatives. They failed. But what the fresh bloods like you did?
You felt, your only contribution to your history is perhaps arranging a re-union. You should not give up your successful career. But, you definitely can do better than calling for a re-union once in 5 years. To make a place to thrive, one has to live there in present and not in the past.
People in your family had all the access in the Govt. and in the society. You could have done better than the common people to make Kolkata a more liveable place.
Nowadays, many rich and successful people prefer to live in India. Try to do something new. But it seems, Bengalis are trying to live more of the American dream. The hardship, the chances of failures simply drive them away. Perhaps that is the reason why their ancestral houses are dilapidated nowadays.
Living abroad and grudging about what is happening in India- this leads us to nowhere. Though most of your observations are correct, but it does not show me a constructive future.
Sayak,
I think you are speaking without context. Our house is neither dilapidated nor not maintained. Parts of our extended family live there, and the house is a living, breathing place, not a tomb of some sort.
As for giving back to India, I wonder what you have done for India to have the audacity to criticize what I have not done. Do me a favor and do some research on my contributions versus yours, and then we can talk. It sounds to me like YOU are the epitome of the “talking, not doing anything Bengali” not I.
I do things. Including for India.
You speak way out of turn, and it pisses me off.