A city can best be discovered through walks in lanes and bylanes, where history, architecture, memory and legacy still lie concealed. And Calcutta, with its illustrious past, can only truly be understood through dedicated walks. It is these dedicated walks that led Prosenjit Dasgupta to rediscover the city beyond history textbooks and dry talks. The result is Discovering Calcutta in Easy Walks, an updated edition of 10 Walks in Calcutta, first published in 2000 and revised several times since. The newest edition, launched recently at Oxford Bookstore, is perhaps the most detailed guide to contemporary Calcutta. It can also be considered a textbook for history and heritage walk enthusiasts, given its thoroughly researched and comprehensive blueprint of the city.
The launch, organised by Ahava Readers’ and Writers’ Club, was accompanied by a discussion that brought together a host of conscious citizens, restorers and conservationists, including Soumen Mitra, retired IPS officer; Manish Chakraborti, conservation architect; Tathagata Chowdhury, founder of Theatrecian; and Ayan Ghosh, management consultant. Spearheading the discourse was GM Kapur, state convener of Intach, known as a strong voice for heritage conservation in the city. The panellists collectively spoke about the city, its character and, in particular, the need to conserve what still remains.
“I really got started in this thing of being a streetwalker sometime in 1985. Having been born and educated here, I realised that I had taken it for granted. I used to live in South Calcutta and never really knew anything beyond Gariahat, Ballygunge and Gol Park. So, one weekend, I just put on my walking shoes and got out. The first location was Dalhousie because that’s where I had worked since 1966,” said Dasgupta, who has written other titles such as Eco-Yatra, A Conflict in Thin Air, Partition in the Mind, Travels Across Time and Days and Nights Among Tribes of Central India. That solitary wandering in Dalhousie encouraged Dasgupta’s curious mind to deepen his understanding of the city.
The map of Calcutta, featuring 42 landmarks, aims to familiarise readers and walkers with the city’s many locations. Setting the context in simple language, Dasgupta first provides a brief history of the city. This is followed by an engaging chapter that recounts Calcutta’s history through the eyes and brushstrokes of painters who arrived in the latter half of the 18th century. From Tilly Kettle, who came to Calcutta in 1771, to Balthazar Solvyns, the Flemish artist who worked in the city between 1791 and 1803 and produced A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings: Descriptive of Manners, Customs and Dresses of Hindoos, the narrative traces visual interpretations of the city. The chapter then turns to the modern visual medium of photography, which arrived in the mid-19th century and attracted many photographers keen to capture the city and its character.
The real draw for heritage walk enthusiasts begins from chapter three, which offers a guide to exploring Raj Bhavan and Dalhousie. The book features 10 such walks and, like a teacher, Dasgupta carefully charts a blueprint for anyone wishing to explore the city alone or in groups. “It is only when you trudge through the streets of Calcutta that you can really come to know its people. The puchkawala, the jhalmuriwala… where to get the best, tastiest shinghara and all that sort of thing,” said Dasgupta as he guided the audience through his book.
The book and the panel discussion also underscored the urgent need for restoration and conservation efforts, as well as the collective responsibility required to sustain them. The evening ended on a positive note. While some attendees began planning to understand the city better through the walks offered in Discovering Calcutta in Easy Walks, others were left hopeful that conservation efforts and the demand for heritage precincts would soon materialise.