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tbr_the_unconquered's review against another edition
4.0
In the course of many an idle day dream, I have wondered how it would be to write about Trivandrum from a different point of view. The term different here needs to be qualified as : One tempered by extended time of living in a different part of the world and coming back to stare with wonderment, consternation and nostalgia at the place of one's early years. The tone of this book is along these lines but the backdrop is not Kerala, it is a place that has attracted and irritated me in equal measure : Calcutta. I have written in quite a bit of detail about this wonderful place in my review for Dan Simmon's Song of Kali and I do not intend to repeat it here. But while Simmon's captures Kolkata in cinematic ambience, Chaudhuri does so in the stark shades of a documentary.
The author looks at the city through various lenses : politics, the impact of globalization, the fall from grace of the intellectual class, the Indian renaissance, plight of the working class to name a few. To know about the history of politics in Kolkata and Kerala is to know about the history of the Communist Party in India. The rise and fall of this ideology can be captured by looking at the way these states have been built and unbuilt over the decades. The adeptness and control that Chaudhuri displays in his writing is captured well here when he looks at the transition of power from the Communist party to the Trinamool Congress in Benagal through the eyes of the working class. From politics we move to the mark that globalization has made in this sprawling city. I saw this first hand when to one side of the road was a deteriorating shamble of ramshackle slums while the other side sported a swanky, glittering shopping mall. Yes, it is a city of contradictions and has every ingredient to surprise a first time entrant. The Bengali's love for food, music and literature are touched upon in quite vivid detail and peppered by personal anecdotes. What touched me most was the story of the couple Anita Roy and Samir Mukherjee who hail from a high borne family ( think Boston Brahmins ) and who with the passage of time deteriorate slowly to a middle class life with admirable dignity. Chaudhuri captures this change in life extremely well and to me it constituted some of the best written passages in the book.
All considered, it is a thougtful, playful and at times scathing book about India's first metropolis. I would recommend this strongly if you have been to Kolkata at least once !
The author looks at the city through various lenses : politics, the impact of globalization, the fall from grace of the intellectual class, the Indian renaissance, plight of the working class to name a few. To know about the history of politics in Kolkata and Kerala is to know about the history of the Communist Party in India. The rise and fall of this ideology can be captured by looking at the way these states have been built and unbuilt over the decades. The adeptness and control that Chaudhuri displays in his writing is captured well here when he looks at the transition of power from the Communist party to the Trinamool Congress in Benagal through the eyes of the working class. From politics we move to the mark that globalization has made in this sprawling city. I saw this first hand when to one side of the road was a deteriorating shamble of ramshackle slums while the other side sported a swanky, glittering shopping mall. Yes, it is a city of contradictions and has every ingredient to surprise a first time entrant. The Bengali's love for food, music and literature are touched upon in quite vivid detail and peppered by personal anecdotes. What touched me most was the story of the couple Anita Roy and Samir Mukherjee who hail from a high borne family ( think Boston Brahmins ) and who with the passage of time deteriorate slowly to a middle class life with admirable dignity. Chaudhuri captures this change in life extremely well and to me it constituted some of the best written passages in the book.
All considered, it is a thougtful, playful and at times scathing book about India's first metropolis. I would recommend this strongly if you have been to Kolkata at least once !
bluepigeon's review
4.0
I have never read Amit Chaudhuri's novels, but I can see that he is not a plot-mover; he is rather a mood-setter. Even in his essays about Calcutta, or Kalkota, there is a strong sense of moods shifting, memories languidly slipping through time, objects standing still, and people observing; not much happens other than conversations. Chaudhuri is at times an eager journalist, doggedly questioning everyone from Italian chefs (not to be confused with executive chefs!) to the very poor people who live on the streets. What I liked about most of his discourse is that he is not apologetic. He talks about "the help" and the difficulties of maintaining good help, the rocky relationship households have with the help, and never is he apologetic about having help, nor is he unaware of the thousand and one ethical and moral issues that surround the facts of belonging to a class that employs such help. He tries endlessly to understand the classes, and the history of Calcutta that he dissects is very much the history of classes. Very much aware of his own class, he is fixated on the middle class, its past, its present, and its image. At times very funny, at times very insightful, and sometimes a bit bitter, he recounts his memories of Calcutta as well as his interviews and experiences living in the city between 2009 and 2011.
Chaudhuri writes very much like an academic, and as a result, some discourses are a bit too "academic" for a casual book of essays, especially his long discourses about modernity and modern Calcutta. However, his essays "Universal Suffrage," "High Tea," "Italians Abroad," and "Study Leave" capture a very good balance, and manage to almost entirely escape the lofty academic discourse in favor of the hilarious, curious, melancholic, and the present.
Recommended for those who like history, cosmopolitan cities, and the mysteries of the middle class.
Chaudhuri writes very much like an academic, and as a result, some discourses are a bit too "academic" for a casual book of essays, especially his long discourses about modernity and modern Calcutta. However, his essays "Universal Suffrage," "High Tea," "Italians Abroad," and "Study Leave" capture a very good balance, and manage to almost entirely escape the lofty academic discourse in favor of the hilarious, curious, melancholic, and the present.
Recommended for those who like history, cosmopolitan cities, and the mysteries of the middle class.
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