Manisha Rakshit in her office. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Name: Manisha Rakshit

Claim to fame: Bengal’s first woman chief government architect

Upwardly mobile: Silk sari pallu pinned firmly in place, it is difficult to believe that only three decades ago Manisha Rakshit could climb on top of Netaji Indoor Stadium or clamber down the pediment of Writers’ Buildings to check the name of the goddess planted there. Her training in rock climbing in her college days helped. “I was known as a tomboy,” she says with a smile.

In her comfortable room in the middle of Writers’ it is impossible to distinguish Rakshit from any other crusty bureaucrat. But the first woman chief government architect and ex-officio chief engineer of the public works department (PWD) is in charge of several important projects, including a controversial one — building the underground car park next to Laldighi opposite Writers’. Till August, the post was a male preserve.

Family feeling: Rakshit says she comes from a family of government employees and the only reason why she chose to study architecture at Jadavpur University was that her family was convinced that this would allow her to work from home. “It is only after I joined work at PWD that I discovered that architecture affords opportunities for studying geography, history, heritage and interior design,” she says. Rakshit’s thesis was on a stadium for Calcutta and subsequently she set up both Netaji Indoor and Salt Lake stadium. “They were built directly under my supervision,” she declares, with proprietorial pride.

Building blocks: Rakshit used to be a regular contributor to her school magazine. After she joined PWD, she began to write on heritage issues in the new Bengali newsletter on architecture named Nirman and Purtakatha, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation journal, in which she wrote detailed histories of the heritage buildings she helped restore — Prinsep ghat, Shahid Minar, the “forgotten fountain” in the West Bengal Assembly building, Babughat and Rabindranath’s house in Mongpu among others.

Paint point: Rakshit clarifies that although initially it was proposed that the Prinsep ghat roof would be replaced with concrete, ultimately good sense prevailed and the plan was rejected. At PWD she has given shape to numerous projects, such as police housing, different educational institutions, Maniktala blood bank, auditoriums and new jails.

Currently, she is executing major projects like the multistoreyed high court building. Rakshit clarified that the high court building was ultimately not painted. A few months ago people were horrified when its stone surface was being daubed.

“I have worked in every district in this state,” says Rakshit, who takes pride in the fact that she has never demanded special treatment as a woman, although at home she cooks and does other household chores as well. But nobody can say Manisha Rakshit is just a homebody.