New Town has an address for Feluda fans to flock at. A park named after Satyajit Ray’s thriller Sonar Kella has come up behind Home Town.
Sonar Kella Udyan, spread over 3.65 acres, was opened by urban development minister Firhad Hakim on Saturday. The park, in New Town’s BA Block, has ceramic murals on the pillars of the gate and both its sides on the outer walls, based on Ray’s sketches in various adventures of the sleuth.
Inside, following the trail of paver blocks one is led to a fountain, 24m in diameter. On the circular wall surrounding the fountain are more ceramic tiles with sketches. One is on Lalmohan Ganguli. A brief account on the tiles introduces the writer and then highlights his weapons (khukri, boomerang and smoke bomb, naming the books in which they feature) and his green ambassador car. Another is on Feluda’s roots — parental, educational and residential. But the showpieces are the two camels on which Feluda, Jatayu and Topshe had set off to catch a train.
The park can be accessed by eight wicker gates other than the main gate. There is also a cycle track, 154m in length. A thoughtful addition is the toilet built inside.
The park was supposed to have been opened on Ray’s birthday on May 2 but the inauguration was pushed back as the minister had to leave for Malda with the chief minister. “But we are still opening it in his birthday week,” said New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) chief Debashis Sen.
Opening the park, the minister said: “We take pride in saying that we stay in Ray’s city. The park will allow local residents to say they live next to a Feluda themed park. I hope Saumitrababu (Chatterjee, who played Feluda in Sonar Kella) comes for a visit some day.” He appealed to people to allow NKDA to paint the adjacent buildings in yellow sandstone colour, to go with the desert look.
Parbati Sarkar and Tapati Sengupta, neighbours from houses next door, enthusiastically nodded in agreement. “I am from Moulali. We had Ramlila Maidan nearby. But this park seems to be our own,” said Sarkar, pointing to her apartment overlooking the park. “We had been following its development. When they installed the camels and the figures of the rider quartet after a few days we knew it would be a Feluda park,” she beamed.
Residents, both young and old, are delighted. While 11-year-old Ankan Maity has started playing cricket here, Tanishi Roy, aged five and half, from neighbouring Aishwariya Cooperative, is making friends here just as her mother is. “We have come to settle here from different localities. This park is giving us a chance to get to know our neighbours,” everyone agreed.
To take the park closer to the name, Sen wants to build a Sonar Kella inside. “The fort will be a fibre glass structure through which visitors can walk in,” he said.
What theme do you want to be implemented in your neighbourhood park?
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