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A review by tbr_the_unconquered
Calcutta: Two Years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri
4.0
In the course of many an idle day dream, I have wondered how it would be to write about Trivandrum from a different point of view. The term different here needs to be qualified as : One tempered by extended time of living in a different part of the world and coming back to stare with wonderment, consternation and nostalgia at the place of one's early years. The tone of this book is along these lines but the backdrop is not Kerala, it is a place that has attracted and irritated me in equal measure : Calcutta. I have written in quite a bit of detail about this wonderful place in my review for Dan Simmon's Song of Kali and I do not intend to repeat it here. But while Simmon's captures Kolkata in cinematic ambience, Chaudhuri does so in the stark shades of a documentary.
The author looks at the city through various lenses : politics, the impact of globalization, the fall from grace of the intellectual class, the Indian renaissance, plight of the working class to name a few. To know about the history of politics in Kolkata and Kerala is to know about the history of the Communist Party in India. The rise and fall of this ideology can be captured by looking at the way these states have been built and unbuilt over the decades. The adeptness and control that Chaudhuri displays in his writing is captured well here when he looks at the transition of power from the Communist party to the Trinamool Congress in Benagal through the eyes of the working class. From politics we move to the mark that globalization has made in this sprawling city. I saw this first hand when to one side of the road was a deteriorating shamble of ramshackle slums while the other side sported a swanky, glittering shopping mall. Yes, it is a city of contradictions and has every ingredient to surprise a first time entrant. The Bengali's love for food, music and literature are touched upon in quite vivid detail and peppered by personal anecdotes. What touched me most was the story of the couple Anita Roy and Samir Mukherjee who hail from a high borne family ( think Boston Brahmins ) and who with the passage of time deteriorate slowly to a middle class life with admirable dignity. Chaudhuri captures this change in life extremely well and to me it constituted some of the best written passages in the book.
All considered, it is a thougtful, playful and at times scathing book about India's first metropolis. I would recommend this strongly if you have been to Kolkata at least once !
The author looks at the city through various lenses : politics, the impact of globalization, the fall from grace of the intellectual class, the Indian renaissance, plight of the working class to name a few. To know about the history of politics in Kolkata and Kerala is to know about the history of the Communist Party in India. The rise and fall of this ideology can be captured by looking at the way these states have been built and unbuilt over the decades. The adeptness and control that Chaudhuri displays in his writing is captured well here when he looks at the transition of power from the Communist party to the Trinamool Congress in Benagal through the eyes of the working class. From politics we move to the mark that globalization has made in this sprawling city. I saw this first hand when to one side of the road was a deteriorating shamble of ramshackle slums while the other side sported a swanky, glittering shopping mall. Yes, it is a city of contradictions and has every ingredient to surprise a first time entrant. The Bengali's love for food, music and literature are touched upon in quite vivid detail and peppered by personal anecdotes. What touched me most was the story of the couple Anita Roy and Samir Mukherjee who hail from a high borne family ( think Boston Brahmins ) and who with the passage of time deteriorate slowly to a middle class life with admirable dignity. Chaudhuri captures this change in life extremely well and to me it constituted some of the best written passages in the book.
All considered, it is a thougtful, playful and at times scathing book about India's first metropolis. I would recommend this strongly if you have been to Kolkata at least once !