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Calcutta Kal Bhi Rahega – 2

Calcutta is a city of its own fashion.  India is changing; Calcutta, too.  However, traditions and culture of Bengal are deep rooted.  In this way, Calcutta is different.  Unlike other cities and metropolises of India where immigrants from other parts have disturbed the cultural balance, Calcutta is still in its own and yet welcoming diverse populace and prowlers.  It is the prime city of the North-East with an unmanageable population of nearly 10000000 – the most populated city of India.  People from a number of states including Bihar, Assam, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and even from Nepal and Bhutan flock here in search of work.  Calcutta has a number of textile mills and numerous industries and both skilled and unskilled laborers are always in demand.  This has made this city the Bangkok of India and - as in Bangkok -  ‘flesh markets’, too, have developed in Calcutta to quench the thirst of these immigrants. Sonagachhi, near Calcutta, is a notorious center of prostitutes where ‘babes’ of all ranges are hired for pleasure.  No wonder, Calcutta is now becoming the AIDS explosion center as well. 

Calcutta is also an important cine center of India.  The Bengalies have a deep love for their language and they are fond of watching Bengali movies, reading Bengali books and listening Ravindra Sangeet. So, Bengali cinema has a rich market and Calcutta is busy molding life into celluloid.  This is not the only aspect.  In fact, Calcutta’s contribution to entire India cinema is unforgettable and rather inseparable.  Here have born people who were trend-setters and fashioners of cinema – Film-makers and Directors like Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, Musicians like S.D. Burman and Salil Chowdhury, Actors like Ashok Kumar and Utpal Dutt, Singers like Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar, Actresses like Suchitra Sen and Sharmila Tagore, Comedians like Asit Sen and Keshto Mukherjee … just to name only few of them.  Indian Film Festival is organized every year and participated by noted film-makers of the world. 

Seeing Calcutta is seeing life.  This is an ocean of humankind, a kaleidoscope of life in varied colors.  Bombay is a costly dream, Delhi is too rigid but Calcutta is all-embracing.  Rich or poor all enjoy Calcutta – the former may dine in a luxury hotel and sleep in a cozy compartment, the latter may just go with ‘machh-bhaat’ (fish and rice) in a stand-by and seek shelter in one of the cheapest ‘dharmshalas’.  Kali Mata has love for all.  Among the famous sites, I must first mention Victoria Memorial.  The memory of this beautiful building has been lingering in my mind since I first saw it in my childhood.  The building is a gift of Lord Curzon to India whose foundation was laid by George V in 1906.  If you want to know British India in a snapshot view, Victoria Memorial is the right place.  The bronze statue of Queen Victoria, of Edward VII,  Lord Curzon, Warren Hastings and Lord Cornwallis, portraits of  Lord Kipling and Macaulay, and items related with Victoria and famous Britons all whisper in your ears the dignity of an empire where, as said, the Sun never set.   With a tint contrary to Victoria Memorial, Shahid Minar is a patriotic spot.  The view of Calcutta from this Tower is highly captivating.   This is a 52 metre high tower and you have to climb over 215 steps to reach the top.  So, count your breath and get on.  If you are interest in the sky and its objects, planets and stars, you must visit Birla Planetarium in Chowranghee.  For your information, you will be visiting one of the few largest planetariums in the world.  And now that you are at Chowranghee, stroll in the market and see a colorful life around.  Chowranghee which means ‘of four colors’ is, in fact, of many colors and is one of the important spots where the heart of Calcutta throbs.  And it will be rather a sin, if you go to Calcutta and do not see Tagore’s House at Jorasanko.  Tagore was Tagore and needs no introduction.  In my own view, in modern literary world there has been only one person who equals in rank with him – Tolstoy.  Both were born in extremely rich families, both lived a saintly life, both reflected a deep spiritual understanding, both loved humanity and both were matchless writers.  Places related with other great personalities are:  Ramakrishna Mission, birth place of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose,  Aurobindo Bhawan, etc.

As I mentioned above, Calcutta or Kolikata is the city of Kaali Maa.  Durga Pooja and Kaali Puja are famous festivals of Calcutta and the fervor and zeal with which the Bengalies celebrate these festivals is worth seeing.  There are several beautiful temples of Kaali and Durga including the most famous Kaali Temple at Kalighat.  This extremely sanctified area known as Kalikshetra is spread in some 180 acres – just imagine how vast!  Many myths surround this mystic spot and this is one of the important centers or ‘peeths’ of the Shakta Mata (followers of the female incarnation of the Supreme Power).  Visiting Calcutta and not seeing this Temple will be quite unfair, I feel.  For children and for people of all age-groups, Calcutta Zoo is the most interesting place.  This is quite very big and animals and reptiles, birds and insects of a vast range can be seen in the Zoo. 

What to mention and what not to.  The ocean is ocean.  One can visit many places in India but Calcutta is something one will fall in love with.  I salute the spirit of Calcutta, I love its people – the most tender human beings on the earth (if I forget the Naxalites for a while).  I love those beautiful forests, those warbling rivers, those chirping girls in the streets, those love-intoxicated artists in their own world, intellectuals and poets in coffee houses, all human beings of essence!  I have great respect for the spirit of harmony reflected in the collective life of the millions of people of different religions and creeds living in this ‘ocean of humanity’.  This tenderness and cohesiveness is and will be the secret of survival of Calcutta.  It is today, it will be tomorrow and that is why I say ‘Calcutta Kal Bhi Rahega’ even when all other cities will be reduced to dust. Calcutta! I will see you again and I am sure my dreams will not collapse, my hopes will not shutter.

– Suniti Chandra Mishra
November 17, 2000

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