I was standing over there near the stage when.... I was sitting right there when.... Whichever turn you take in Someplace Else at The Park, there’s a story waiting to be told. It’s no different for Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Parno Mittra. As the Park Street pub, which redefined (and continues to define) the city’s live music scene, turns 22 today, t2 caught up with two SPEians — Param and Parno. If he vividly remembers the first time he walked into Someplace Else wearing a “moss green sweatshirt” many moons ago, she fondly recalls being on stage for the first time shooting for her first film, Anjan Dutt’s Ranjana Ami Aar Ashbona. Over to P&P about SPE....
What are your earliest memories of Someplace Else?
Parno Mittra: This is where I had my first beer. This is where I heard my first Beatles song. And this is where I got thrown out (laughs out loud)! We were very young and we didn’t have money to go to nightclubs and parties. Every Wednesday and Friday, we would come to Someplace Else. Clubs were too expensive for us then. So how to enjoy?! We would go to Someplace Else. They didn’t ask you for IDs! So we would have one drink each, listen to good music — Hip Pocket was our favourite — and go back home. It’s nice to see Someplace Else still around and it makes me so nostalgic. The moment I step into Someplace Else, I start missing my friends.
Parambrata Chattopadhyay: By the time we reached the legitimate age for drinking, we kept hearing about this place called Someplace Else. I had just got into Jadavpur University and there I had some friends who had already been to Someplace Else. I had just started listening to rock music. I still remember I wore a moss green sweatshirt to Someplace Else for the first time! At that time a bottle of beer would cost around Rs 140 here, and it meant a lot to us to have just a bottle of beer. I was doing a tuition job, I used to go and teach a little girl of Class III or IV. That was my only source of income. So you can imagine… I had saved up for a visit to Someplace Else, and tokhon ekta beer maane… kaanch obdi kheye nebo (laughs out loud). The band played a lot of classic rock — U2, The Beatles, Sting, The Rolling Stones.... The place of course lived up to my expectations and I felt like I had become an international citizen!
What’s the craziest thing to have happened to you here?
Parno: We had come for the Parikrama night and it was packed. My friend was standing in a corner near the stage… I don’t know what happened, I think he drank someone else’s beer and that guest complained, and we were thrown out! I didn’t even take a sip! That must have been 12-13 years back.
Param: After a certain age, I started growing out of rock. I got into Latin music, world folk. At that time I fell in love with someone. And Latin music is the best to woo a woman. The cadence of Latin music is the most romantic cadence possible. I brought the woman to an Orient Express evening. Latin music ta na shonate parle mone hochhilo communicate korte parchhi na. I was regaled, they were doing Poncho Sanchez, Tito Puente, and I was like ‘wow’. The Spanish language is so romantic… I was picturing myself as Zorro with a rose between my teeth (both go LOL). But that person wasn’t impressed… my idea of passionate romance was different from hers. She probably got shit bored.
Have you ever come to SPE all alone?
Param: I had come here once to drown my woes in drink… I had come in so late, all the bands had finished performing. I reached around midnight and I sat and drank here, alone, which I have done very rarely in my life. It was about some jibon jontrona. Otherwise, if I am alone in a pub, I might watch a game on television... or just study people while having a drink.
What makes SPE special?
Param: It is still the best place for live English music in Calcutta. My association with SPE started in my late teens, so… there’s this attachment to this place.
Parno: Yeah, we would listen to bands playing The Beatles, Van Halen... headbang… boka boka (LOL). We would bump into schoolfriends and college friends...
Param: What I like about this place is that a lot of edgy people of Calcutta come here at night. For example, there is this man, who must be touching 70… smokes and drinks a hell of a lot. He is there all the time.
Parno: Yeah, I have seen him every time I come to Someplace Else!
How was your experience shooting in SPE?
Parno: I shot in SPE for my first film Ranjana…. I have always been on the other side, and it was really scary to be on that side — the stage. You have to play the guitar properly and act along with it. And when I met Nondonda (Bagchi) I told him that I would go to SPE to listen to Hip Pocket all the time. I heard Anjanda (Dutt) for the first time here. They were promoting Chalo Let’s Go. It feels nice… now that I have become a part of the industry and know these people personally. I have so many good memories of SPE.
Param: It’s been very nice and peaceful. People are so co-operative here.
Have you performed on this stage?
Param: Once for the promotions of The Bong Connection... and maybe another time, I don’t remember. Haantu kaape to go on stage. That’s because I’ve watched all the greats perform here, from Amytda (Datta) to Nondonda. There’s a discerning crowd here who expect a certain quality of music.
What’s the allure of pubs for you?
Parno: You have good food, music, beer. I visited a bunch of these places in London recently. I would have Guinness and gammon steak. We shot in a pub (for Anjan Dutt’s The Bongs Again) as well. I love Guinness. I am very comfortable with beer. Though I’m off beer now.
Where have you found the best pubs?
Parno: London has the best pubs. I only went to pubs this time. After we finished shooting I stayed on in London for 15 days. There are pubs everywhere. Anjanda treated us to gammon steak at Carnaby Street. Pubs open at daytime there. You can go and have breakfast or lunch. I enjoy the pub ambience.
Param: The best pubs in the world are in Edinburgh... quaint, small, packed with many maataal lok.
Parno: You find that in London also…
Param: But they are of a different league in Edinburgh! All groggy and grim-looking men and women sitting and drinking. Try talking to them… they are so chatty! Edinburgh doesn’t care a lot about working. London has this work energy; Edinburgh doesn’t care a flying hoot about all of that. For music, the pub experience is better in America. Music is fantastic there.
Parno: They have a bunch of jazz bars.
Param: New York jazz bars are very vibrant. An alternative American crowd, very democratic… Left-wing, mixed cosmopolitan crowd.... For the last five-six years I have had only whisky and when I walked into a pub in Spain and asked for it, they just looked at me as if I had gone crazy.
Have you struck up a conversation with a stranger in a pub?
Parno: After getting drunk?! Many times! Not in Calcutta though. You meet so many kinds of people and you end up chatting with them. You don’t remember them the next day!
Param: I am completely up for that.
Param, what was your opening line when you started such a conversation with a girl?
Parno: I’m sure Param goes, ‘Hi, can I buy you a drink?’
Param: No, I would not start like that. I find that too cocky, going up to someone and saying that. Aar bhoy laage bolte giye by chance jodi totle jai (they go LOL)! I would wait for something to happen. Like a glass breaking, or something like that.
What happens when you are happy high?!
Param: I have seen Parno talking a lot. I get happy. The worst person in the world becomes my dearest friend. I start believing more and more in the fundamental goodness of human beings.
PUB TALK
First film you shot for at SPE
Param: 033
Parno: Ranjana...
Fave pub food
Parno: Gammon steak
Param: Burgers
What’s missing from the pub scene here?
Parno: We don’t have too many pubs in India. You see bars all around
Param: Sad part is many pubs are in shopping malls. The idea for a pub is to have locals who would walk in for a drink. There are nice bars in India. Pubs have never really thrived
One thing I would love to see in a pub?
Param: A proper jukebox
Parno: That’d be nice
The connection between pubs and sports...
Param: I have watched football on TV in pubs in England. Once I was watching a match and I cried out loud when Argentina won. In England you don’t shout and support Argentina. They have a chip on their shoulders about the Falklands War. Suddenly, I noticed these people staring at me with cold eyes and I quickly realised and aaste kore kete beriye gelam
Arindam Chatterjee
Pictures: Pabitra Das
What’s your fave SPE story? Tell t2@abp.in
