It’s time for yet another nostalgic account of Kolkata – this one from Martin Waelde, the outgoing director of Max Mueller Bhavan. To his credit, Martin doesn’t spin the usual run-of-the-mill ‘city of joy’ story.
Instead, he focuses on what Kolkata is actually perceived as in the eyes of a keen observer.
Martin has spent over 4 years in the city, good enough to hold views that are devoid of preconceived notions and overt emotions. He is therefore right when he says:
Calcutta is a huge, complex laboratory of social life, architecture, arts, history, economy and politics. Here the poor have more chance of surviving in the heart of the city and not get dislocated as in most other Indian cities.
Coming as he does from an affluent country, it is not easy to overcome a wretched feeling to be in a city where life always seems to be on tenterhooks.
But here there are so many shades of fight for survival that it’d be naïve to assume that Kolkata doesn’t offer a fascinating kaleidoscope to observant eyes.
Martin Waelde hasn’t lost time and opportunity to capture countless “interesting portraits” on his Nikon D200, which no doubt will relive his moments in the city for a long time to come.
It’s another matter that if and when he gets a chance to visit the city again some years hence, he’d probably find it in the same groove with the same quality of life to go with.
Perhaps it’d then occur to him that no matter how the world has changed over time, Kolkata is there in Kolkata only, a seemingly endless expanse of timeless abyss. [Collated from The Telegraph]
Technorati Tags: kolkata, calcutta, max mueller bhavan
Leave a Reply