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Mumbai Fixers - Kolkata, Mumbai (2026)

18/08/2019

Indian Letters continued in Kolkata, shot by Vandita Jain, directed by Maia Weschler and produced by Preeti Vasudevan. The journey continues and it was shot at Kidderpore Port (locally spelled as Khidirpur), the point where Indian indentured laborers memorial is erected since 2011. It was from here that millions of Indians were sailed (in the 19th century) to the then-unknown territories of Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Fiji, South Africa, and Suriname - thus inhabiting the Indian diaspora worldwide. The indentured labor system was technically British way of employing Indian workers in their sugar plantations in the form of slaves (which on papers, were laborers). In Hindi, they have known as बंधुआ मज़दूर.

A place of significance for every Indian. Thanks to Sandip Roy aka Vicky, for managing the shoot on-time.

24/07/2017

JAMES PRINSEP GHAT

Built in 1841, the Greek and Gothic styled Palladian architecture - the James Prinsep Ghat is one of the oldest attractions of Kolkata. Situated next to the George Gate of Fort William, in the neighbourhood of Hastings, the Prinsep Ghat (as it is popularly known as) the porches were erected in the year 1843 in the memory of James Princep (1799 - 1840), an English scholar and orientalist.

James Prinsep's contributions to India, to list among many, are the first powered ceiling fan, first human flight in the Indian sky, popularising the romanticisation of Western culture with the Indian ghats (waterfronts), the first detailed city map of Calcutta, first high-precision weighing machine etc. The ghat is located at the riverfront of Hugli (or Hooghly or how it is traditionally known as - Ganga) next to the Vidyasagar Setu (also known as 2nd Hooghly Bridge, built from 1979 to 1992). A jetty lies nearby the ghat, known as Man-O-War, which is under the authority of Indian Navy.

Popular Hindi film Parineeta (2005) had its shots taken at this ghat. The porches and the bridge look immensely glorious and mesmerising during evenings. Below are few pictures of the said ghat.

22/07/2017

THE RUINS OF CLIVE HOUSE

Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, Knight of the Bath, Fellow of the Royal Society, was the Commander-in-Chief of British India between 1756 to 1760. Together with Warren Hastings, he is credited to lay the foundation of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent. Born in the year 1725 at Styche (in Shropshire, England), Clive was sent to Ft. St. George near Madraspatnam (Chennai) in 1743 by the East India Company. At this time, major regions in South India were heavily influenced by the French and there was a scramble of trading posts between imperial European nations - France, England, Denmark, Netherlands and Portugal. But Clive's involvement was first highlighted and came into the picture during the first Carnatic War (1746 - 1748) - the Indian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748). After being promoted to the post of Lieutenant, Clive was involved in various conflicts such as the Tanjore (Thanjavur) expedition, the Second Carnatic War (1749 - 1754), the Siege of Arcot in 1751 made him popular not only in India but among the European generals as well as they were astonished to see accomplishments by someone with no formal military training.

The second journey to India, Clive made in 1755 where he was made the Deputy Governor of Cuddalore (in Tamil Nadu). The incident which made Robert Clive as a prominent figure in the course of Indian history was the 'fall and recapture of Calcutta' in 1756. The infamous incident of Black Hole of Calcutta occurred in 1756 where 146 British troops were captured by the then Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daullah, at a place near Fort William. 123 of the soldiers died of which Clive took revenge in 1757 by presenting an army of 540 infantries, 600 Royal Navy soldiers, 800 local sepoys and 14 field guns to encounter the Nawab's army of 40,000 cavalries, 60,000 infantries and 30 cannons. Though small, but the tactful supremacy of Clive made the Nawab surrender Calcutta and pay in return compensation to the damage done to the East India Company.

In 1760, Robert Clive returned back to England and entered the Parliament. He re-returned to India in 1764, now as the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Bengal Presidency, thus officially starting the British Empire in India.

While his stay in Calcutta, Robert Clive stayed in a residence in Dum Dum area, alongside Rastraguru Avenue road. The house, currently in ruins, was once a one-storeyed blockhouse, thick bricked-walls which had loopholes in between for musketry. Before Clive, troops of the Bengal Artillery lived there who had witnessed lush green gardens forwarding the building.

Clive House, although protected by the Government of India, is in shambles and the walls are used to hang clothes by dwellers living in nearby slums. The building is unattended and poorly-maintained but yet the glory of British India shines in the rustic walls, brown and golden standing still tall. An unheard and less-known gem from the suburbs of Kolkata - the Clive House.

21/07/2017

SERAMPORE - A FORGOTTEN FORMER DANISH COLONY OF INDIA

Part of Kolkata Metropolitan Area, Serampore is a small town in the Hooghly district. Spelt variously as Serampur, Srirampur, Srirampore, Shreerampore, Shrirampore, Srerampore, it was once a part of Danish India between 1755 to 1845. Often overlooked, the Danish history of India is an unturned leaf which is long forgotten by the general people. Here's a brief narrative of the same.

The Danish Asiatic Company was granted the rights to establish a trading post at Serampore in 1755 and the name of the area was changed to Frederiksnagore, honouring the Danish King Frederik V. Denmark (at that time which was Denmark-Norway, covering present day Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Greenland) ruled this tiny habitat for roughly 90 years and raised a couple of buildings such as The Danish Government House (1771), the Catholic Church (1776), the Lutheran St. Olav's Church (1806) and the Serampore College (1823). This was the time when Bengal was scrambled between colonial European powers and each imperial coloniser had its own share. The French were at Chandernagore (Chandannagar), the Portuguese were at Bandel and Hooghly, the Dutch at Chinsurah and the British at Calcutta (Kolkata).

Denmark had a fairly decent relationship with France and after the defeat of Indian troops in the Battle of Plassey (Palashi, in West Bengal), the British acceptance allowed Denmark to establish a cordial relationship with the two countries, and hence continue its colonisation. In 1777, the Danish Crown took over the charge of all Danish possessions from the Danish Asiatic Company and Serampore thrived as a hub of private company owners. In 1780, a Danish compound was constructed with bricked wall around it and a Protestant Church after a Norwegian saint, St. Ole, which would be known as St. Olav's church, was erected in 1806.

Although Denmark remained neutral between the two major ruling powers in Bengal - France and England, it came into the war-picture during the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). Since Denmark was an ally of France, the Danish Commander Ole Bie (1733 - 1805) was forced to sell Serampore to the British. The entire Danish fleet was seized at Copenhagen in 1807 and the British captured the region for a short while in 1801. The captivity was released and Serampore was handed back to Denmark in 1815. But during these 14 years, the Danish trade and development had already been hampered. Early industrialisation in England caused heavy losses to Danish trade who relied on Indian hand-woven cotton and textiles. This and several other factors lead Serampore to fall under heavy British influence.

By 1840s, hundreds of European houses in Serampore became empty and abandoned and in 1845, the Danish rule in Serampore ended.

Most of the Danish buildings at Serampore are in ruins or are in utter neglect. Once famous 'the Denmark Tavern and Hotel', opened in 1786, is now in shambles and forgotten. A street named High Street (presently known as T.C. Goswami Street) once consisted of rich European villas. The area is now defamed with over-populated footpath dwellers, hanging their clothes to dry across the once posh European gates. Once what saw a prominent Danish leisure street is now scrambled with cattle loitering around, pot-holes, narrow lanes, garbage and street-dwellers. Indeed, the people have forgotten entirely this tiny segment of Danish history in Bengal, and consequently, India.

Here's a list of some of the buildings, restored and dilapidated. Trying to speak about the long forgotten Danish history. A brilliant subject for documentaries and with further research, period drama.

20/07/2017

TAGORE CASTLE

One of the several royal families of Kolkata includes the Thakurs (Tagores) of Pathuriaghata and Jorasanko, going back to the last quarter of the 19th century. One of the oldest areas of north Kolkata, Pathuriaghata had the origins of Tagore family. The Tagores dates back its roots to 994 AD when Bengal was ruled under the Sena Dynasty, and 16 generations after when the brothers Sukdev Kushari and Thakur Panchanan migrated from Jessore (in Bangladesh) to the newly established town of Calcutta, near Gobindapur, in 1690. Thakur Panchanan had a son named Joyram Thakur, who would be the founder of the Thakurs of Pathuriaghata.

During the initial days of Calcutta, the city was divided by the British into two areas - White Town and Black Town. After 1756, the year of the great Black Hole incident in Calcutta, White Town started expanding, thus pushing the Tagores and other royal clans to expand their residencies near Chitpur Road and Pathuriaghata areas. Joyram Thakur shifted to Pathuriaghata from where the future branches of Tagore family spread to Jorasanko, Koilaghata and Chorbagan.

One among the several Tagore personalities of Pathuriaghata, Kali Kumar Tagore built a huge mansion in Neptehata (Prasanna Kumar Tagore Street) in the year 1820. In the same vicinity, in 1895, his younger brother Prasanna Kumar Tagore (Prasanna Coomar), with the help of Macintosh Burn (a famous Kolkata based architectural company) constructed Tagore Castle. The building had a central tower imposing that of the Windsor Castle. It also had the permission of hoisting the Union Jack.

Once the majestic building held the residencies of the Pathuriaghat Tagore families are at present in shambles, dilapidated and in utter negligence. The present families living here are as apathetic as the common citizenries, who are unaware of such a historic site.

Here's attaching few photos of the infamous and unheard Tagore Castle.

30/06/2017

More than 2300 colonial buildings are in dilapidated conditions and requires serious attention by the government. Nevertheless, the charm and beauty of Kolkata in it's colonial architecture still boasts in many a buildings - either being used as office occupancies or residential quarters. Since the city was itself established in 1690, all the buildings constructed dates back to 18th-19th centuries. Here's a list of few of the several surviving architectures spread across the entire city.

29/06/2017

KOLKATA

Kolikata, Koilkata, Kalikata, Calcutta or Kalkatta. The City of Joy has plenty of pronunciations of its name by various ethnicities. Known to the colonial era as Calcutta, the city got its official name change in the year 2001 to Kolkata, the capital of eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

The city has it's various etymology stories. One of them was when one of the first Englishmen to arrive at this spot (in 1690) inquired about the place, a grass-cutter confused the question to be, 'when was the grass cut?'. To which he replied 'kal kata' which would translate as 'cut yesterday'. Consequently, the place got its name as Calcutta.

Another explanation has a more Bengali origin from the words 'kol kata' meaning 'lap cut' - to denote the formation of soils by water (of river Hugli) cuts. This is to be believed as the possible derivation of the word 'Kolikata'.

The most popular and believable etymology is the name of the Hindu goddess Kali. Some also suggest the derivation of Kolikata from Kalighat, the latter is a current neighbourhood of Kolkata.

The history of Kolkata starts quite recently in the 17th century. The fishing village of Kolikata was not in use till 1690 while the maps chartered displayed nearby villages of Chuttanuty or Soota Loota (presently known as Sutanuti) and Gobindapur (Govindpur). The first mention of the word 'Calcutta' appeared in 1688 in a letter from Dacca (Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh). In the year 1689, the founder of Kolkata - Job Charnock, one of the agents of East India Company, negotiated a trading licence of the villages from the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. And thus, the story of Kolkata began.

The Englishmen weren't the first to approach Bengal for trading. The Portuguese arrived there in 1535, the Dutch in 1636, the French in 1673, the Danish in 1675 and then the English in 1690. The exact location of Job Charnock's arrival is approximated between today's Beniatola and Sovabazar ghats in North Kolkata. The lands were exchanged between Charnock and a local landowner named Sabarno Roy Chaudhuri from Barisha-Behala for setting up trading tents. Eight years later, on the 10th of November 1698, Charnock's son-in-law bought the rights of the three fishing villages - Dihi Kolikata, Gobindapur and Chuttanuty to form Calcutta. But historical references consider 24th August 1690 as the beginning of Calcutta.

Charnock was followed by the arrival of Englishmen who became writers on the payroll of English East India Company and in the year 1712 established Fort William. The Writers' Building was built in 1777 and the office of the writers was shifted to this current location. An important event took place on the night of 20th June 1756 which changed the course of Calcutta's history, and the consequences following afterwards would mark the beginning of British rule in India.

The event which took place on 20th June 1756, is known as the 'Black Hole'. Infuriated by the British indifference and excessive interference in his political matters, the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah (1733 - 1757) captured 146 British soldiers in a tiny cell of Fort William (which his army captured as well) for one entire night. The lack of proper space and light suffocated the soldiers and only 23 of them managed to survive. The next year, 1757, the Commander-in-Chief of British India, Robert Clive, took revenge of this British humiliation and defeated (and killed) Siraj-ud-Daulah in the famous Battle of Plassey (Palashi, Nadia district, West Bengal).

Soon with the weakening of the Mughals in Delhi, Calcutta emerged as a hustling city of the British Empire in India and in 1772, it becomes the capital of British India (and remained till 1911 when it was shifted to Delhi). Calcutta was divided into broadly two regions - White Town (the area around Fort William) and Black Town (the area around Sutanuti). The fishing villages soon became important trading harbours and Calcutta developed massively. White Town was clustered with buildings boasting neo-classical architecture while Black Town became a trading hub. Neighbourhoods such as Kumortuli, Muchipara, Darjipara and Kolutola were settled by labourers arriving from elsewhere in Bengal.

Calcutta was also expanded culturally and literally by the Royal Bengali families such as the Debs of Sovabazar, the Duttas of Hatkhola and Rambagan, the Mitras of Kumortuli, the Nandys of Cossimbazar (Kasim Bazar), the Sinhas of Paikpara and the Thakurs (Tagores) of Pathuriaghat and Jorasanko. The rich families (and other rich merchants) contributed to the beautiful architectures of the city by raising mansions and palaces in every corner from north to south. The most notable of these buildings open to the public even now would be the Marble Palace, built by Rajendra Mullick between 1835 - 1840. The grandeur of Victorian architecture can also be seen in various other popular buildings such as the Victoria Memorial (est. 1921), the Indian Museum (est. 1814), the National Library of India (formerly the Calcutta Public Library, established in 1836), the Calcutta High Court (est. 1862), the Writers' Building (est. 1777), the General Post Office (est. 1864) etc. The city has an endless list of colonial architecture to offer, most of which are now either converted into government offices or are occupied as residential quarters.

Kolkata is the hub of literature and intelligentsia in India and numerous well-reputed personalities have taken their birth here. This is the hometown of Nobel Prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941 - who revolutionised Bengali literature and shook the foundations of British rule in India with his works), Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926 - 1947), Amiya Chakravarty (1901 - 1986), Narendranath Dutta or popularly known as Swami Vivekananda (1863 - 1902 - who revived Hinduism in India and was the first Indian to introduce the religion at the Parliament of World's Religion conference, Chicago in 1893), Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809 - 1831 - an Anglo-Indian who was one of the first to introduce Western learning into Bengali students) etc. Kolkata is also the death place of Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, popularly known as Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997) an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, having over 4500 sisters managing the refuge for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, leprosy, tuberculosis etc.

Geographically, the Kolkata Metropolitan Area is an agglomeration of 72 cities and 527 towns which include the Kolkata City and parts of neighbouring districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hugli and Nadia. Throughout history, Kolkata has been the capital of Bengal region, of whose territorial expansion changed from the Bengal Province (1886 - 1905), the partitioned Bengal (1905 - 1912), the reunited Bengal (1912 - 1947) and finally the Indian state of West Bengal (1947 to date).

From filmmaking point-of-view, innumerable films have been filmed in Kolkata. Popular Bollywood films would include Barfi (2012, India's official entry into the 85th Academy Awards), Detective Byomkesh Bakshy (2015), Kahaani (2012), Love Aaj Kal (2009), Parineeta (2005), Piku (2015), Tamasha (2015) etc. Some of the key Bengali films such as the Satyajit Ray directed film Mahanagar (1963) and the American-Indian film directed by Mira Nair, The Namesake (2007) has been shot in Kolkata as well.

Mumbai Fixers - Kolkata

18/08/2019

24/07/2017

22/07/2017

21/07/2017

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30/06/2017

29/06/2017

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