Oh Calcutta! First Day Exploring India’s Former Colonial Capital
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Waking up at 4.00 am (after having set my alarm for 4.30 am) is a sure sign of ignited nerves and I was a bundle of nerves as I left my flat in Bandra at 5.00 am to stand on the corner of my street waiting for a yellow cab or rickshaw to take me to the airport for my 7.00 am flight. Just when it seemed as if all the cab and rick drivers were fast asleep, a rick came along to whisk me off to the airport where I reached within 20 minutes as we flew along the highway.
Check in was a breeze as I did not check in a bag but took it as a carry on and sank down to enjoy the long ride along the tarmac to the aircraft followed by a non-eventful but very comfortable flight. It took two and a half hours during which time I enjoyed my own delicious home made sandwich with a bottle of water (meals were available for sale on the Go First aircraft (my first time flying with this airline). I read 84 Charing Cross Road on my IPad during the flight and almost finished the very short novella by the time we landed. I managed to take pix of take off in Bandra with the Sealink and the Bay of Worli plus good pix of the Brahmaputra river (which becomes the Hooghly river in West Bengal), of the green paddy fields of the state (brought to mind all those films of Satyajit Ray that I have seen over the years) and the urban density of the sprawling city of Calcutta. Wonderful touch down and landing!
It took me half an hour to get a pre-paid cab at the airport as there were too many people in the line and too few vehicles available, but when I did (for Rs. 300), I was dropped off easily at my Hotel Elgin Fairlawn on Sudder Street right in the heart of old Calcutta. The Hotel is like a green oasis in the midst of a busy, bustling neighborhood and dates from the late 1700s. I have been staying here on my trips to Calcutta since the days when it was run by the venerable Armenian Violet Smith and later her daughter Jennifer. After Violet’s death, it was sold to the Oberoi’s and definitely looks much more spiffy now than it did in the old days when it exuded shabby chic!
Entering the lobby is like returning home for me. The old-world graciousness of the staff, the arrival of a magical welcome drink (I so needed it after my hot and long journey from the airport during which time traffic simply crawled) and the fact that I was instantly upgraded to a deluxe double room because I am a frequent user of this hotel, did wonders for my spirits. After finding my room at the end of a long verandah on the top floor, I stashed my stuff away, used the facilities and left. It was about 12. 15 pm by then, long after I had actually expected to reach. Still, without wasting any further time, I took directions from Manish, the nice receptionist, and made my way towards a half day of sight seeing.
Taking the Metro to the Victoria Memorial:
I love Calcutta’s Metro system and by the time I bought my ticket for the princely sum of Rs. 5, and stood at the platform waiting for my train, I felt as if I was back in Manhattan again and waiting for my subway train! It was spanking clean and gracious. I was in the train for just two stops—Maidan and the Rabindra Sadan (my stop). I followed instructions to the T (given by Manish), but I had to say that the walk from the station to my destination was LONG and since it was hot and really humid, I was tired within ten minutes of walking. Asking all along the way for the entrance to the Victoria Memorial, I finally found it a good half hour later, by which time I was already quite wiped out.
Exploring the Gardens of the Victoria Memorial:
I needed an urgent sit-down and I found it on a bench overlooking one of the reflecting pools of the vast gardens that surround the Victoria Memorial. It is truly a spectacular monument and I simply could not get enough of it on my camera. I photographed it from every angle to take in the glory of Viceroy Curzon’s vision for a memorial monument that would commemorate the recently-dead Queen Victoria (which makes me wonder…can you imagine what they are going to build after our current Queenie pops it—longest reigning British monarch and all that ???) It was a good time to eat my other sandwich and down half a bottle of water as I needed to rehydrate myself urgently. I was losing moisture through perspiration at an alarming rate as the humidity was so high. When I felt refreshed in the shade overlooking the gorgeous building, I walked all the way around it to arrive at the main entrance as I had arrived on the south side past the sculptured monuments to Edward VII, Victoria’s son. From the main entrance, one sees the grand bronze sculpture of the seated Victoria sculpted by George Frampton and just on the other side, is the grand marble sculpture of Curzon whose brain child this building is. Meanwhile, there are gorgeous fountains, roses in lush flower beds, reflecting pools—all the elements that make for grand Edwardian gardens. I loved it and took it all in.
Inside the Victoria Memorial:
It is funny how I visit this building on every trip I make to Calcutta (as I love it so much) but never remember much of its interior details. So it is always with a sense of awe and wonder that I take it in each visit. The grand Rotunda (with its soaring dome) in the style of Andrea Palladio’s rotundas the world over, the Greek columns that hold it up, the dentil molding, and at the very top (simply too far, in my opinion, for the human eye to take in details), the half moon mosaics that record key moments in the life of Victoria—from the day she received news that she had become queen, to her coronation to her death bed. Needless to say, Prince Albert features in a lot of the depictions and I was stunned and wished I had a pair of binoculars with which to take in the minute details at the top.
Next, I made a bee line for the gallery that holds the collection of colonial paintings by the uncle-nephew team of Thomas and William Daniels. They arrived in India in the 18th century and traveled around the newly-acquired colony of Bengal documenting their progress as they painted monuments, landscapes, people. They have left us a brilliant record of India in that era. I was disappointed that only a handful of their works were on display—on previous visits, I have seen a far bigger collection. However, in honor of the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence, most of the galleries were taken up new exhibitions to mark the occasion. There was a huge one of Calcutta’s most famous son—Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and the army he created in Singapore to overthrow the British by using tactics far removed from the non-violent ones advocated by Gandhi. In another gallery upstairs (mercifully air-conditioned), there was a whole other exhibition on the attempts by Indians based overseas in the 19th and early 20th centuries to either muster support for Indian Independence or to overthrow British rule in some form. The history buff in me found all of this fully fascinating and it was with great difficulty that I managed to tear myself away after carefully reading all of the curatorial notes (in three languages, English, Hindi and Bengali). It was all beautifully curated and I felt less disappointed that room had been made for these new exhibitions by removing the majority of the colonial paintings as well as the section of Indian paintings that, in the past, had featured some of the great painters of the Bengali Renaissance. There was so much to read, so many pictures to see, several videos playing on a loop in many corners of the vast galleries and so many visitors (I was thrilled) that filled the space.
When I was done, I left the building and, asking for directions, made my way to the next item on my agenda: a visit to St. Paul’s (Anglican) Cathedral that is literally just across the road.
Visiting St. Paul’s Cathedral:
St. Paul’s Cathedral is the oldest and most striking Gothic structure in Calcutta. It dates from the 1700s and is an impressive, pure white building with a crenelated central tower. I have visited it before because I love the quiet serenity of its interior, but mainly because I love one of its stained glass windows. It was designed and executed by Edward Burne-Jones, one of the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of whom I am a huge fan. Inside, the Cathedral reminds me of St. Thomas’ Cathedral in Bombay. It is full of mortuary monuments in marble, including a giant one of Bishop Hebbar who introduced Anglo-Indian schools in Calcutta. Photography is strictly prohibited inside the church and I had to find special permission at the church office to be able to take a picture of it for my fiend Dr. Fiona Mann, who is a scholar of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the UK. Naturally, I too wanted a picture of it as I am, as I said above, a huge fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. Mission accomplished, I left the church and found my way to the exit.
I could not face the idea of walking back in the exhausting heat and humidity back to my hotel but I could urgently do with a nap by this time. So I hailed a cab and made my way back to my hotel, where I ran into my friend, Dr. Robyn Andrews who had arrived for the conference from Massey University in New Zealand. We had a happy reunion and since I was dying for a cup of tea, by this point, I chinwagged with her for a bit while ordering a tea tray which I sat in the restaurant and enjoyed with two cookies. It was the best pick-me-up and just a little later, I returned to my room where I sank down in the blissful air-conditioned coolness and promptly took a nap.
Exploring New Market and Finding Dinner at Park Street:
It was exactly 6.00 pm when I decided to leave my room again and continue sightseeing. I had two more items on my agenda for the day: a visit to New Market and Park Street. I was determined to fit them both in before calling it a day.
New Market, whose real name is the SS Hogg Market (Sir Stewart Hogg Market), is just a five minute walk from my hotel and I easily found my way there. It is a huge covered market in the fashion of Crawford Market in Bombay and is probably of the same vintage—ie. Late 1800s. This one was erected by S Hogg who was knighted by the British.
You could spend a whole day in New Market because you can, literally, get everything under the sun here. But I was focused on three shops: Nahoum’s, a Jewish bakery dating from the late 1800s which is really popular at XMas time for its incredible plum cake; Chamba Lama, a Tibetan store that sells handicrafts and is known for its semi-precious stones set in silver jewelry; J.Johnson, a grocery store known for selling Bandel Cheese to which Indians were introduced by the Portuguese. After they were taught by the Portuguese how to cause milk to curdle in order to create cheese, the Bengalis used the curds to fashion all sorts of sweets—hence, the Bengali sweets such as rosgolla, Cham Cham and sponge ‘sandwich’—also sondesh. I decided to buy some cheese to taste. I found it very salty. It is sold in small discs, in plain and smoked varieties. I bought the smoked sort. My friend Ashley told me about this cheese and requested me to buy him some—which I did. From Nahoum’s, I bought rich plum cake and light fruit cake to take to my Dad and Russel, as well as vanilla and chocolate fudge and a rum ball for my dessert. I have to say that I enjoyed strolling around the market, but I was already so tired from my morning wandering that I kept my rambles to the minimum. When my purchases were in the bag (literally!), I walked out and made my way to Park Street which was a 15 minute walk away.
Park Street was completely different from the New Market area. It is hip and spiffy and filled with expensive designer stores, boutiques, restaurants that had their heyday in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and confection shops such as Fleury’s. I passed by all of them to take in their ambience which was all the more enticing with the bright lights switched on by this time. However, I was focused mainly on buying myself a kathi kebab roll that had been introduced to Calcutta by a restaurant called Nizam’s in New Market. The same Nizam’s rolls were touted as being really good at a small hole-in-the-wall place on Park Street called Kusum Rolls and it was there that I bought a mutton kathi roll to go. I had to wait for about 15 minutes as the place was mobbed and offered only take-out service. With my roll in the bag, I walked along the main road to my hotel.
I was really knackered by this point and all I could think of was throwing myself on my bed in the wonderful cool serenity of my room. I had only enough energy to eat my dinner and my dessert, chat briefly with Llew, brush and floss my teeth and get straight into bed.
It had been a hugely tiring day but a hugely productive one as well and I was grateful that I had such a lovely place in which to rejuvenate myself through a very early night.
Until tomorrow…
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