Calcutta: Two Years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri
Review of Calcutta: Two Years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri
Calcutta: Two Years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri (2013). Published by Union Books.
Once upon a time, I was supposed to study abroad in Kolkata, India, in order to study Bengali language under a State Department language scholarship. But, unfortunately, COVID-19 happened and my program went virtual in the summer of 2021.
I’m still eternally grateful to have the opportunity to study Bangla with some incredible teachers, but as we virtually visited villages and artisans, discussing the streets we would’ve bought books or fuchkas on, you really miss something. I began to yearn for a place I had never visited.
So I sought out more Bengali literature out of India, although I do have an interest in Bangladeshi literature as well.
I randomly stumbled on Calcutta: Two Years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri. The reviews I saw were not that great of it, but I was drawn in by the premise of comparing the Kolkata of his youth to the Bengali Renaissance Kolkata to present day Kolkata. I was very interested in that perspective, so I immediately ordered a used copy of the book to add to my collection. I ended up reading the book in one sitting on a ferry to New Jersey while also freezing.
This is my review!
A series of essays on Chaudhuri’s version of Kolkata through his eyes and experiences.
In this book, Chaudhuri intentionally decides to split up the narratives into essays, but they’re all a form of memoir. I think the essay format really lends to the story as a whole, as it makes certain things more digestible. If you are not familiar with Indian or Kolkata history, then you might need to pause and look some things up, but if you are picking this book up specifically, I imagine you have had some experience with the region previously.
Chaudhuri delves deep into the impacts of globalization, economics, and current political climate in India and how it impacts Kolkata today. He sees it as something that has lost its previous glory achieved during the revolutionary days and when the Bengali Renaissance was occurring.
In its essence, I would describe this book as as social commentary for the people wandering in the streets, for the people he knows in his daily life, for Kolkata’s society as a whole.
There’s clearly that thread of British empire and colonialism that is woven throughout this story, especially considering India’s history with the British. Then there is that sense of isolation of when the British withdrew, Kolkata, too, began to fall under a new era of decay.
Once the Bengali Renaissance is over and the British are gone, there’s that rural sense of life captured through the lens of filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, but then Kolkata as a whole begins to fall towards obscurity.
One of the most fascinating chapters/essays to me is about the Italian chefs trying to make a living in Kolkata. There is that notion of adapt or die for the Indian market, making Italian food appeal to others in a completely different country. It’s such an emblem of Kolkata to show how stubborn its citizens are when introduced to something new, when, at some distant point in history, they were the innovators.
Some would definitely have qualms with the style that Chaudhuri wrote this book in. It loses focus often, and drops the reader into circumstances where he assumes that you know what or who he’s talking about.
I found this aspect of the book to be endearing, something that feels more authentic versus having to explain anyone who’s anyone or what exactly something is. By dropping the reader directly into this world and immersing them in what it contains, that’s how you really get the reader focused on your actual points and what you’re trying to say.
Overall Thoughts
At the end of the day, it is a book about ambiance. Chaudhuri’s main point is that the old Kolkata that has been immortalized by the bards and poets of that era is gone and what is left is something considered to be a shell of what the place once was.
He sees this through the eyes of someone who lived there as a child, left, and then came back as an adult. And, perhaps, that too played a part in it. He no longer sees the city through the whims and wonders of a child, instead choosing to focus on what makes the city how it is today.
I have respect for the way he chose to write this, although I definitely can see how a reader might not like it and lose focus if they’re not familiar with the city of Kolkata. It can, indeed, be quite difficult to read.
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