The truth is, Calcutta was a failure. After a lifetime of hearing about it I just about scraped through, like a pariah dog of the Bengali community with its tail between its legs, managing a handful of nights on my way out of the Northeast. I thought it was going to be fantastic: after more than two weeks spent between Bhutan, China and Bangladesh, I would hit the intellectual capital of India and wring it of every last drop of possibility.
But I’d forgotten how soon a big city can start to look like every other big city of the world. This one was just a bit grubbier than most. And the Calcutta I had heard of had long disappeared, in a fast-evaporating cloud of Bengali ego and the inevitable sprawl of urban India. The famed bookstores of College Street sold text books, not literature, the supposedly up-market inner streets of Salt Lake looked as run down as those in Sonagachi, the age-old red light district. And, the final slap in the face to every Bengali who has been breaking out into its song: the coffee of Coffee House tasted like hell.
Residents shouldn’t take my views too personally, though. Urban India doesn’t get particularly better, from the three-hour traffic jams in Bombay to the semi-urban sprawls of Arunachal Pradesh. You have to travel for days in the subcontinent to get to anything remotely rural. Everything else is a mix of shanty-town corrugated metal sheets and concrete monstrosities: the so-called ‘boom’ that we are supposed to be rejoicing.
4 Comments
Dear Pinaki,
I thoroughly enjoy your latest photos and writing you’ve published. Have you thought about compiling any of these in a printed photo essay? I would love to have a hard copy in my house for all too see. When will you make it to America? You could create volumes on a trip here.
By the way, this is Jeff Konen. I met you this past spring in Oman. I am a friend of Ty & Marcie Frederickson. I do regret not getting to do an internship with you; however I might be back sooner than I think. Hope all is well.
Much Respect.
Dear Jeff,
Very good to hear from you again. I’m sorry we never made it out. I chanced upon a few interesting by-lanes of Muscat crammed with south Asians stuck 20 to a room. The part of the Middle East you aren’t supposed to see. Perhaps I’ll put some of that stuff up soon.
Right now America is too far away to justify a trip, unless I do it on assignment, like here: http://www.rethink-dispatches.com/ which looks like a great thing to graduate to.
Meanwhile, what happened to your project? When do i see it in print or on the web?
I look forward to that.
Hi Pinaki,
I landed on your blog via artnlight, which featured a post on your work. Your pics are absolutely compelling and the writing completely compliments it. I am from Ahmedabad and i wish you do come to Gujarat someday and capture its beauty in your unique way.
I’ve written a couple of photo essays on my blog too. It would be great if you could take a look at them.
Keep up the good work. It serves as pure inspiration.
Pinto! Why’d you stop blogging? What are you working on now?