Once Upon A Calcutta

Devasis Chattopadhyay바카라�s 'Harry Hobbs of Kolkata and Other Forgotten Lives' revisits a city that many of us are unfamiliar with바카라�a city which once we would have called Calcutta바카라�but the writer feels that the name is no longer relatable. The book is a trip through the past introducing us to people that history has forgotten. 'Harry Hobbs of Kolkata and Other Forgotten Lives' has been called a study of subaltern colonial history바카라�certainly so since Chattopadhyay explores the lives of piano tuners, stand-up comics and would be Italian impresarios. 

At its centre is Harry Hobbs바카라�not a Major in the regular army but a piano tuner, keen observer and chronicler of his adopted home. Hobbs spent 73 years in Kolkata and wrote extensively about the city, becoming a witness to its transformations across nearly a century 바카라�even though his books are no longer read and moulder on the shelves of the National Library. His writings serve as the source material for many of the vignettes in the book, linking one story to another in an informal, almost conversational way.

There's the Huguenot Roberdeau who worked in Mymensingh and died at 30, remembered for a phrase that still echoes in India바카라�s civil service바카라�"minutely just, inflexibly upright바카라�. Then there바카라�s the fantastic tale of Marie Antoinette바카라�s lover, whose lineage, by a twist of fate, begat the Pattle family바카라�one of whom was Julia Margaret Cameron, the pioneering Victorian photographer and another, Virginia Woolf. The Pattle family line, intriguingly, had Bengali connections바카라�something that might resonate more deeply with modern readers than the French aristocratic link, as noted by historian William Dalrymple, who often highlights his Bengali heritage over his colonial forebears.

Chattopadhyay refers to Marie Antoinette as 바카라�profligate바카라�바카라�a word that feels rather out of place, given the tragic aura that history (and pop culture) has cast over the cake-loving queen. It's one of the few tonal missteps in an otherwise carefully researched and respectfully rendered text.

Although colonial Calcutta was documented by both men and women바카라�at least seven of the 35 surviving first-hand European accounts were authored by women바카라�few female voices find their way into Chattopadhyay바카라�s narrative. The women who do appear tend to be in supporting roles: wives of Thackerays producing children, or mothers-to-be fleeing to England in the hope that their babies might survive infancy though there is a mention of women from England who set up bars across Calcutta, one even boasting a circus-trained female bar tender who was known to vault over the bar to deal with troublesome male clientele.

Chattopadhyay talks about the coming of ice to Kolkata from America, a venture in which Dwarkanath Tagore was involved and how ice parties glittered across the city. He also mentions cholera, which decimated generations and filled South Park Street Cemetery. Nonetheless Calcutta remained the most lively city this side of the Suez. There was racism바카라�Wyndham produced the Indian Charivari based on 'Punch', which had a series of nasty 바카라�Baboo Ballads바카라� making fun of Bengal바카라�s educated bhadralok. The Bengalis were fair game as far as the British were concerned, especially after 1857. And the Bengalis were quick to retaliate with a host of newspapers and pathbreaking plays that they took to producing and selling tickets for so that the plays could have a greater run. Oddly enough Michael Madhusudan Dutt enjoyed comedian Dave Carson바카라�s send-up of Bengali babus insisting that it was all in good humour.

The stories are interspersed with quotes from articles, quotes and snippets from the papers of the time. All the lives are interconnected바카라�the Shakespeares and others rub shoulders with Warren Hastings, Lord Moira and other politicians of the time. Chattopadhyay is very meticulous, possibly too meticulous about listing the modern names of the streets and places he lists. So much so that old Calcutta and its stately buildings seem to vanish in Chattopadhyay바카라�s exploration.

'Harry Hobbs of Kolkata and Other Forgotten Lives' is ultimately a tribute to a city both lost and enduring as well as to Harry Hobbs, the raconteur who recorded it. It recreates a Calcutta that once was바카라�eccentric, energetic, flawed and fascinating. For those patient enough to follow its meandering paths, the book offers a richly rewarding journey through the neglected lanes of time.