So we decided to renew Kolkata Kaleidoscope again. Having exhausted all the conventional landmarks of the city, we had to really rack our brains, raid strangers' Google albums, and tire everyone with incessant questions in order to come up with a rather eclectic list of tumble down mansions, bustling thoroughfares, places of worship [hidden among shops selling everything imaginable!] and the common favorite, the bank of the Ganges whose colonial aspirations [it shall become the Thames soon, the powers that be have promised] sound strange in a postcolonial world.
Such trips as we undertake expose the ramshackle state of Kolkata's heritage buildings, and it really is painful. Squatters have occupied magnificent properties which have become derelict or are embroiled in legal tussles between warring families. Mansions that have been restored lie ugly and out of place in the squalid brown which is the color I associate Kolkata with. Nonetheless, beneath garish colors, anachronistic motifs and the other paraphernalia of heritage restoration, the beauty of these buildings can still be glimpsed if you look hard enough. Most of the buildings and mansions which are hailed as being "colonial", "old world" and so on are actually quite kitschy with many influences, all combining to confuse and shock the spectator into repulsion and delight. Purists shall shudder with horror at a monument like the Marble Palace, a personal favorite, which takes your breath away at the sheer audacity of placing originals by Titian and Renoir alongside marble statuettes of dubious origins! Yet, this is the reason why Calcutta continues to fascinate. The city's heritage buildings, a veritable cornucopia of styles, designs, influences, mostly crumbling, derelict or shabbily restored, still make us squeal with excitement. You really do not know what you will hit upon at the corner of a dingy alley, and so we renewed Kolkata Kaleidoscope again...
Such trips as we undertake expose the ramshackle state of Kolkata's heritage buildings, and it really is painful. Squatters have occupied magnificent properties which have become derelict or are embroiled in legal tussles between warring families. Mansions that have been restored lie ugly and out of place in the squalid brown which is the color I associate Kolkata with. Nonetheless, beneath garish colors, anachronistic motifs and the other paraphernalia of heritage restoration, the beauty of these buildings can still be glimpsed if you look hard enough. Most of the buildings and mansions which are hailed as being "colonial", "old world" and so on are actually quite kitschy with many influences, all combining to confuse and shock the spectator into repulsion and delight. Purists shall shudder with horror at a monument like the Marble Palace, a personal favorite, which takes your breath away at the sheer audacity of placing originals by Titian and Renoir alongside marble statuettes of dubious origins! Yet, this is the reason why Calcutta continues to fascinate. The city's heritage buildings, a veritable cornucopia of styles, designs, influences, mostly crumbling, derelict or shabbily restored, still make us squeal with excitement. You really do not know what you will hit upon at the corner of a dingy alley, and so we renewed Kolkata Kaleidoscope again...
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