Kolkata: The Dream City

Calcutta or Kolkata, whichever name you prefer to recognise this grand old city, you cannot be indifferent to it.

Kolkata
The Dream City
Jayabrato Chatterjee
UBSPD
2004
Pages: 96
Price: Rs 375
ISBN: 817476471-2
Paperback

HT Image

Calcutta or Kolkata, whichever name you prefer to recognise this grand old city, you cannot be indifferent to it.

This paperback coffee-table book combines text with an amazing array of pictures to bring out the city  - its history, monuments, people, and the spirit it embodies. The city has inspired many a book, and its muses continue to wax eloquent, though sometimes with a critical eye, on their favourite subject. 

The book is divided into eight chapters, which explore the various dichotomies that come to be synonymous with the city’s name today. It acknowledges the simultaneous existence of ‘poverty and pride’, which today shape the city and its people.

Some of the photographs are excellent, especially the title spread picture of the Vidyasagar Setu and the view of the Victoria memorial aglow in the fading light of the dusk. The visuals of the everyday scenes, the numerous images of Durga, the beautiful monuments that dot the city, the diverse means of transport, from the hand-pulled rickshaw to the squeky clean metro, all find space. Perhaps a few more pictures of the great individuals that the city has produced would have enhanced the offering, though faces like Tagore and Ray do find place.

A map of the city would have helped too, especially for those unacquainted with the layout.

Nevertheless a book that all lovers of the city would welcome.