Friday, August 26, 2022
A Day Devoted to Academic Commitments
Calcutta
I have to say that I did not sleep too badly. My bed in hotel Elgin Fairlawn was expectedly comfortable and I did get my six and a half hours of nightly zzzs. When I awoke and tried to take a shower, however, I ran into a major issue. There was no hot water in my bathroom! I had already made plans to meet my colleague Robyn and her husband Keith in the hotel dining hall at 9.30 am—this left me with little time then to consider a change of room as I had spent at least an hour reading in bed before considering a shower.
So, if you can believe it, despite calling the Reception and despite having someone come up to take a look at the hot water situation in my room, I ended up taking a cold shower! Luckily, it is quite warm in Calcutta at this time of year—so it wasn’t as brutal as it sounds. Thoroughly awake at the end of my shower, I got dressed and made my way downstairs for breakfast. I had used the coffee and tea making facilities in my room so enjoyed a wake-up coffee but I was certainly ready for the big breakfasts that I know this hotel is superbly reputed to do.
Breakfast at Hotel Fairlawn:
In the past, when the late Violet Smith used to own and run this hotel, it offered a Full English breakfast and complimentary Afternoon Tea and biscuits—Violet used to be married to an Englishman named Ted and she learned the more civilized ways of the English from him! Sadly, with the takeover of the hotel, there are some changes (not all bad, by any means, but the little English ways that always appealed to the Anglophile in me, are no longer in evidence). Still, they have a lovely breakfast menu and I have to say that I enjoyed the most magnificent ones for the three nights I spent here.
Juice was available and I chose a watermelon juice which came in a small juice glass. I learned immediately to request a larger glass and, on the following mornings, my wishes were most graciously granted! I started off with muesli and requested honey and yogurt with it. These were delivered separately to my seat in small containers and I was given a really large portion of it. I think they expected that to be the extent of my breakfast! But, of course, I had other ideas—and I then ordered my hot breakfast. I asked for a mushroom and cheese omelette and tackled my muesli as I awaited its appearance. By this time, Robyn and Keith joined my table and when Robyn told me that the fresh mango was wonderful, I ordered a serving of it to round off my meal. I was delighted that mangoes are still available in Calcutta. The season has definitely past in Bombay—so this is probably the last mangoes I will eat for the year.
When my omelette arrived, I was disappointed to find that it was only a cheese omelette—there was not a single mushroom in sight (much to my disappointment)—but the omelet was fluffy and hot and superbly done and I did not see any need to beef about it! It was served with half a grilled tomato and a hash brown. I declined the offer of toast but I have to say that I really did enjoy my mango—it really was excellent!
Off to the University of Calcutta for the Anglo-Indian Studies Conference:
About a half hour later, we were joined in the lobby by our friend, Fr. Brent Otto, who is a Jesuit priest and also an up-and-coming scholar of Anglo-Indian Studies. He is currently finishing his PhD at Berkeley and is in India on an 11-month grant that has allowed him to carry out a great deal of work on the Anglo-Indians of South India by examining the archives in the National Library in Calcutta. He is also one of the editors of the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies and, as I have worked closely with him over the years, it was very good to see him again. Our reunion continued in the Uber that he hired to take the four of us to the venue—the University of Calcutta campus on College Street which took us through the congested center of Dharamtala past all manner of public transport for which Calcutta is famed including trams, crammed buses, rickshaw pullers and cycle-rickshaws. When we arrived at the campus, we made our way to the Ashutosh Building and I was simply delighted to find that the campus looked absolutely spiffy after its major rehauling of a few years ago. When last I was on this campus, four years ago, for the Anglo-Indian conference, the entire place was under renovation and was a complete mess.
A Day of Wonderful Academic Exchanges:
We found the classroom that was allocated to the conference and, mercifully, it was air-conditioned—such a pleasure and a relief when you consider how hot and humid it is outside. All credit to Prof. Selwyn Jusserl, an Anglo-Indian who is a professor of Linguistics and a good friend of Robyn. He also provides us with the space, the audio-visual facilities, the services of his eager and willing post-graduate students who are delighted to sit in and listen to our papers and for the modest tea, coffee, biscuits and lunch services that he arranges. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
The conference began with Selwyn making a few Welcome remarks and then Robyn introducing the concept behind these bi-yearly conferences. Keith, her husband, was the first speaker of the morning and although his paper was casual and non-academic, he raised some interesting points.
My paper followed with the accompanying PowerPoint and as each of us was given only 15 minutes, I had to rush through it. I ended up leaving out one of the sections of my paper, but the three sections that I did cover were received well. There were some interesting comments and questions that followed it and most listeners were completely struck by the material I managed to unearth through my research that had been carried out in the India Office Records in the British Library in London, a few years ago.
And so the rest of the conference continued in this vein, with every speaker attracting the interest and attention of the participants and adding their comments at the very end. We had a tea break with delicious herb biscuits in-between and a boxed lunch served at our desks that allowed us to interact with the students who came up to talk to us.
The afternoon session was equally interesting with a coffee break relieving us of the monotony of listening closely. I was especially struck by two presentations: one by Brian Gomes who is carrying out ethnographic work among elderly Anglo-Indians in Calcutta (he is familiar with my work and has based a lot of his work on my findings, he said) and Lyndon James who is working among Anglo-Indians in Orissa—the few of them that are left in the area that was once a military hub outside of Bhubaneshwar.
Overall, I have to say that I found the entire conference extremely absorbing and felt delighted that after such a long time, I was able to sink my teeth into an academic gathering in person where we actually had a chance to interact with the presenters.
Presentations of Books to the Derozio Collection:
After the conference ended at 5.0 pm, we made our way to the building next-door to the library on the fifth floor. This is where the Derozio Collection of Anglo-Indian books, once owned and then donated to the library by my friend, Blair Williams of New Jersey, are housed. Blair donated 167 books to the library about five years ago. He has appealed to scholars of Anglo-Indian Studies to donate a copy of each of their books to the collection so that it may grow and remain up-to-date. Four years ago, many of the students I had met at a similar conference had told me that they badly needed to get their hands on my book on Britain’s Anglo-Indians for their own work, but could not afford to buy it and that the library cannot afford to purchase it either. I had already decided to carry a copy of my book and gift it to the library on my next visit to Calcutta—so I was delighted when Robyn emailed me and asked if I would consider donating a copy of my book to the collection. I told her that Great Minds Think Alike—as indeed that was what I had intended to do.
The ‘ceremony’, if you could call it that, at the library was brief. My friend Deebojoy Chanda who is editing an anthology of essays on Anglo-Indians in Literature (to which he had invited me to contribute a chapter), insisted that the library gives each of the contributors a written Acknowledgement and indeed that was what the slow-paced bureaucrats at the library set out to do. Meanwhile, the lot of us spent time inspecting Blair’s books and I was thrilled to see an essay that I had forgotten I had even written in one of the books that Blair has brought out. Anyway, we had a lovely time clicking pictures as the books were handed over and eventually I did receive a written Acknowledgment of my donation. My friend Blair will be happy to note that his collection is being updated although there is no signage at the library to name it the Derozio Collection—it is simply labeled Anglo-Indian Collection.
Off for Dinner to Park Street:
It had been a long but very fruitful day and five of us had made plans to have dinner on Park Street following the conference. We said our long goodbyes to the students who were very happy indeed to interact with us. Sadly, as the dinner was one that each of us paid for, the students could not afford to join us. But I have to say that I was very impressed that some of the conference participants had come to Calcutta just for the day and were returning to Orissa and Kurseong respectively at the end of the day because they did not have a place to stay in Calcutta and did not want to spend on hotels. I kept thinking about how blessed I am to still have research funds available to me through NYU so that all my expenses will be reimbursed. There are so many little things for which we, American academics, need to be grateful..
We took an Uber to Park Street (I was with Brent and Deebojoy) as we made our way to Floriana, which is a restaurant to which we always somehow return. But by the time I finished using the facilities, the group had changed its mind about eating there and at Brent’s suggestion, we made our way on foot to a lovely place called One Step Up, where he said the food was excellent.
And indeed, Brent was correct. First of all, it is a much cozier space and secondly the menu was lovely. Brent, Robyn and Keith had the Burmese Chicken Kow Suey but because I just had some at my friend Marianel’s place in Bombay, I chose an item I really love and rarely see on a menu in India—Singaporean Laksa. This is a hearty coconut milk-based noodle soup that comes with meat and veg. I chose the Prawn version and it was very good indeed. Deebojoy chose the Chicken Stroganoff and he said it was superb. We had all started with drinks (I had a G and T while others had Pina Coladas and Rum and Cokes) and starters of fish and spring rolls; but we decided not to have dessert as we were all too full. What a superb meal it was! Instead, in lieu of dessert, we decided to stop for a small ice-cream cone each at a tiny parlor, a few doors down and I treated everyone to a frozen treat—chocolate, mango, kesar pistachio. It was a very sweet end to a really wonderful day!
Back to the Hotel to Call It A Night:
We said Bye to Brent and Deebojoy (Brent is renting a small flat close by) but Deebojoy lives a bit further away. Keith, Robyn and I used the back streets (crowded, dirty, congested) to get to our hotel and reached there about 15 minutes later on foot.
All that was left then was for us to say goodbye as they would be leaving early tomorrow morning to get to Tamil Nadu. They had a flight to Chennai as they are going off to Valainkanni for the novena and feast and will stay there for a few more days to get some research done. I bid them goodbye and left to return to my room where I enjoyed the quiet serenity of the air-conditioning, called my Dad, had a long conversation with Llew to tell him all about the conference and then did a bit of reading and switched off my light.
It had been another wonderful day in Calcutta and I felt very fulfilled indeed at the shape it had taken.
Until tomorrow…
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