St. Pauls calling....24 Aug 2014

The name is a familiar name for me because my school where I spent 12 years of my life also had the same name. The picture that one sees above seems to be a large one; yes I did it purposefully to do justice to the original sheer size of the structure.
It is at 1 Cathedral Road and to be more simple bang opposite Birla Planetarium.The vintage is visible from outside; let me clarify not in terms of the colour but in terms of the sheer size. Nowadays, no one would ever build anything close to the dimensions. As I entered the premises, I was again disappointing to note that cameras were not allowed inside. Another distinct piece of the complex was the clock which was seemingly working when I entered the complex. I am using the word seeming because I forgot to check the same while returning.
The entrance itself leaves one spellbound. At the left immediately on entering is the original chapel which is now called The Memorial Chapel. The wooden panel surround the same and there is a beautiful carving of large marble around which are small chairs and pillows (probably used for kneeling down). This cathedral served as the metropolitan and mother church of the Anglican province of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon till the inauguration of the church of North India on 29 Nov 1970.
The place is full of memorial notes written in marble, some on metal and some just engraved on the walls; paeans written by the followers, juniors or family / friends of the departed with a brief history about their acts. I am sure while writing these, the thought must have been that some day an acquaintance might drop in and have the memoirs read. Now after many score of years later, I doubt any of the names would be identified by any of their acquaintances; this is the power of time. Sigh we do not recognise that today; someday, there would not be a single soul alive on the Earth who would know that a person by mine / your / our name ever existed.
The walls are atleast 50 ft. high. Some cracks are visible in some of the corners; probably that was the corner reported in the papers some days back. There is a large statue (sitting position) of Heber to the right of the entrance. There are many rare photographs also. One of them is the house of Bishops of the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon which met at the General Council of Calcutta in Jan-1970; it was here that the historic decision of entering the Church of North India was taken. We have pictures of Charles Freer Andrews (d 05-04-1940) and Sir Robert Barlow Bart.
The list of Cathedral Chaplains and Cathedral Vicars from 1847 is mentioned in a place. From another memorial, I came to know the names of the first Bishops of Calcutta. They were as follows:
Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1814-1823)
Reginald Herber (1823-1829)
John Thomas James (1827-1829)
John Matthew Turner (1829-1832)
Daniel Wilson (1832-35)
To the left is the Mass place. Chairs, really old ones are there; the space can accommodate 1000 people. There are beautiful frescos; only if cameras were allowed. This was empty with prayer books scattered around; probably the mass had got over in the morning. Besides this, there was a small prayer room where the lectures were on. Behind this, the collection of engravings, statues and artwork continued. We have a huge marble piece in the memory of comrades of Bhutan Field Force. There is a marble engraving of Nagendra Nath Sengupta (scientist and Director of Govt. Test House, Alipore) and his wife (Lulu Putalie Sengupta) in their memory. The last memorable piece which I came across was a small memorial in honour of Maj. Gen. William Nairn Forbes of Bengal Engineers who was the architect of the Church.
Tragedy then struck me as I was interrupted by a staff member asking me not to take notes.
As usual, this visit also reminded me of the temporal nature of nature. Souls glorified of those days have just become names etched on walls, marbles or metals. Perhaps this is the reason history is taught as a compulsory item in schools, alas if some could appreciate that!

As has been always, my gems were with me

Portugese...17 Aug 2014

Today was Janmashtami!
The original plan of the day was to reach this place; this had already been seen while making the trip to the synagogues. As I had always held on to the principle of exploring one place at a time, I had not ventured into this historic relic the previous day. Having been there once, there was no problem in reaching there. There was a desperation in my mind because I had once enquired and I was told that the church opened only from 08:00 - 12:00 in the first half.
The Portugese Church is located at the crossing of Brabourne Road and Canning Street. It is popular as the Church of When we reached there, a baptism ceremony was on. There was a congregation of about 30 people. I was glad to see that the crowd also included teenagers and just-out-of-teens. That was succeeded by the Sunday Mass probably.
The structure is an imposing one from the outside but more than the size, I found it to be photogenic.

The imposing structure from outside

I tried capturing the large windows and their sills which has been done by sheer patient-work. Thanks to the new tab (read toy), I was able to capture the right hand side tower in a single footage. But one thing I must admit: the structure belies the origin i.e. 1799. This for me is the oldest institution that I have come across till now in Kolkata.


The interior is to be seen to be beleived. An imposing hallway welcomes the person. The picture is attached below.

The front view of the church

Another view of the main hall

The mass in progress; look at the sheer height of the structure, the interior design and the ventilation. 

The allays to the right and the left is adorned with full statues and busts of Jesus and Her Mother. The one of the left ends in a small structure, but by Jove I must say, too beautiful.

Given a chance, I would stand there and gaze at the statue which is shown below.

I could not make out the details of the painting below below somehow liked it; hence took an exclusive picture of the same. I could not lay hands on the name of the artist but I am sure it refers to the "washing of the feet" by Jesus himself.

As I mostly try to place the parting shot as that of the two entities who normally accompany me; here for that day

Signing off for now; planning for the next Sunday...

Delhi chalo...10 Aug 2014

Today was Rakhi and the escapede was planned post the special breakfast; special not because of any innovative item on the plate but because of the fact that it was pre-decided and I never have it predecided, I go by whatever is given to me.

Coming to the itenary of the day, it was Netaji Bhawan at Elgin Road. It was absolutely easy to reach there because of a nearby metro station i.e. Rabindra Sadan. One observation I would like to make before I enter into the famed house is that each of the houses of the famous personalities in Kolkata have an epitaph in front of the concrete structure mentioning either a famous quotation of the person or something written about him/her by another great personality. This was the same at Jorasonko, at Aurobindo Bhawan and now we had a similar thing at the residence of Netaji.  A picture of the same is attached below; what a quote. India is independent but it simply made my hair stand up; the sheer power of the words and dialogues.

The entrance itself leads to a barrage of stairs; again made of wood and the bannister being the same which I saw at many historic places. To the right at the first floor is the bedroom of Netaji which contained two large cots, one was used by the leader and the other belonged to his father. The wall was full of large half-man size portraits so nicely painted that the original colours still have the glaze and freshness. I could not stop marvelling at the collection. We also had some of the personal belongings of the great leader; I consider him to be my personal best amongst the lot of people who fought for our independence. Well that is a bit digressing from the main topic of description but I can't help it.

In accordance with the elite households, the room had a tastefully decorated dressing table and a mirror. The belongings were out of touch for us because of the glass partition that had been installed. I am glad that it had been done because otherwise going by typical Indian hands, they would reach expiry much before than their expected vintage; more so when we are talking of priceless items. There were a collections of trunks, suitcases, a table lamp, and a grandpa's clock. A rare picture of Gandhi visiting the room in 1946 was also there. The Great and the famous escape began from this room. He tiptoed downstairs, was driven by a car (picture below).

The room next belonged to his brother and an equally important link of Indian freedom fight i.e. Sarat Bose. The room contained a large cot and a huge bust of him. Huge portrait paintings of his parents were on each side of the cot besides a typewriter. This room had a huge collection of rare pictures. First on the list is an editorial written by Sarat Bose an hour before his death on Feb 20, 1950. He was Chairman of the Editorial Board of "The Nation". There is a portrait of him in Rome (1948), with Eamom de Valera (Calcutta, 1947), with M K Gandhi (Sodepur, 1947), with Bivabati (London, 1949), with Bivabati (Switzerland, 1948), with Generak Aung San (Rangoon, 1946), mother Prabhabati (1938), a portrait in Delhi (1938), a portrait in Vienna (1948), ona boat from Naples to Capri (1948) and in a press conference of the Interim Cabinet (besides Nehru and Rajendra Prasad). We also saw a rare family group photo at Vienna (Nov 1948) which also had Bivabati, Sisir Kumar, Anita, Roma, Emilie and Chitra.

To the left of the stairs was the study of Subash Bose. It had a huge table which he probably used. The sofa sets present in the room suggested that it was used also for meeting guests. A small write-ups also suggested the same. One queer fact I observed that there were two tables which resembled computer tables; no idea how or what it was used for.

The upstairs contained a museum. The contents made my day. Through an array of rare pics one gets a sense of his times and timings. The right room starts with an enlarged picture of the diary pages of Netaji's father (Janakinath Bose) where he mentions about the birth of the legend at Cuttack. In fact that was the first place in the complex where we have the mention of Orissa. Many people would not be knowing the fact that the legend has his roots in Orissa. His father was one of the richest lawyers of Cuttack of those days.The room has a splendid and rare collection of photographs encompassing the life of Netaji. Amongst the many pictures, we have a family photograph (Cuttack, 1905), an enlarged photograph of his handwritten note about his family (published for Indian Piligrimage 1937), as a boy, as a high school student, that of Beni Madhab Das (his teacher from Collegiate School. Cuttack), with a friend in 1913, a copy of the letter written to Sarat Bose (1913), a letter to Hemant Sarkar (1913), in England (1913), his first passport (birth place is mentioned as Cuttack and the state was mentioned as Bihar & Orissa and height as 5'9"), copy of the song "Aton and other Verses" written by E F Oaten (presented to the museum by the writer in 1969, this was an obituary), copy of the resignation letter from ICS (22-04-1912), with friends in England (K P Chottapadhyay, C C Desai and Dilip K Roy), as CEO of Kolkata Corporation 1924, I was surprised seeing the age), a copy of the letter written to Bivabati (from Burma in 1925), in Mandalay Jail (1926), after release (1927), letter written to Basanti Devi (wife of Deshbandhu C R Das, the letter is stamped "Censored and Passed"; probably then, each letter was opened and read), of C R Das and his wife, family photo at Shillong (1927), at Calcutta Congress meet (with Motilal Nehru, he is in military uniform) and at Lahore (during Naujawan Bharat Sabha Conference, 1929). Each of the photo had a story behind it and it was good that all have been kept almost chronologically thus making us easier to understand them and guess his life phases.
There are many more photographs speaking loudly of the boldness and the popularity of the person. There is a photograph of him being the Mayor of Calcutta (1931), of him enroute to Europe (1933 on S S Gauge), of his arrival at Vienna (1933), with Vithal Bhai Patel (19330, with the Mayor of Rome (19330, with the Mayor of Vienna (1933), in Prague (1933), him at the inaugural function of Indian Students Association (Milan, 1934), of his during study tour of industrial establishments (Europe, 19330, of him performing his father's shradh at this house, Jan 1935), of him in Egypt enroute to Europe (Jan.' 19350, with Rene & Heddy Fulop (Budapest, 1934) and with his Emile Schenkl (March 1936). There are various pictures of his association with the Congress party and partymen like Maulana Azad, Sarojini Patel, Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Abdul Gafar Khan and Rajendra Prasad in various meetings and sessions like Calcutta, 1939. He is also seen in the inaguration of the National planning Committee at Bombay in Dec 1938.
Amongst his further memorable pictures from Europe is the one of his arrival at Berlin (1941, the pseudo name used was Orlando Mazzotta). The picture of him working on his desk is simply amazing. It captures the yogi-like concentration moment which has been tinctured with strength and confidence. The best of the collection in the room and probably in the entire building is the one handshake with Hitler.

The second room contained relics on more of the Netaji which we all know; the fiery leader starting up the army, being received in the foreign shores. The military victories, the assimilation of the armies. The photos  and collection items speak it all. It contains the cap and belt used by Netaji. It also contains a model of the Japanese submarine in which Netaji travelled across to Sabong & Sumatra in Apr-Jun 1943. The photographs as in the other rooms are rare. These are photographs of Sun Yat Sen Memorial in Nanking, China (1943), him boarding the Japanese submarine in Indian Ocean (Apr 1943), his arrival and reception at Sabong (May 1943), his arrival at Singapore Airport (July 19430, him reviewing troops at Singapore (1943), with Rash Bihari Bose (being handed over the leadership at Singapore, July 1943), him broadcasting to Indians from Singapore (1943), him taking the salute as the Supreme Commander (July 1943), leading proclamation of Azad Hiund (Singapore 21-Oct 1943), him in a cabinet meeting of Azad Hind Govt. (Oct 19430 and of him reviewing the Rani Jhansi regiment with its commander Lakshmi Sehgal (Singapore, 1943).
We also have photographs of the first presentation of arms by Rani Jhansi regiment, newspaper prints declaring Azad Hind movement and all religions (depicted through A Sikh, Muslim and a Hindu) dining in one of the barracks of Azad Hind Fauz. Some other rare pictures are that of Netaji with Asian leaders on the steps of Japanese Parliament (in Tokyo, Nov-1943), him speaking at the Hibiya Hall (Tokyo), him addressing the Greater East Conference (Tokyo, Nov-1943), with Marshall Sugiyama (Chief of Army Staff, Japan), with Japanese foreign minister, visiting the famous Meiji shrine, him coming out of the Cellular Jain (Dec 1943), him reading the Proclamation of the provisional Govt. of Azad Hind and that of the Azad Hind soldiers celebrating the capture of a strategic point in North East.

The best part of the room was captured in the various insignias designed by INA. The first was a set of postage stamps with topics close to the INA and the respective denomination mentioned over it. The second was a set for cars; the categories were for Major General to General, Major to Colonel, Sub-Officer to Captain and that of Netaji as the Head of state and the Commander-in-Chief. I was surprised to note that we had a charka on the last insignia; I guess Netaji had tremendous respect for Gandhiji despite being a stanch op-poser to his politics and style of working. The third was the INA shoulder insignia designed as per the grade (as per ascending order) namely Lance Naik, Naik, Havildar, Sub Officer, Second Lieutenant, First Lietenant, Captain, Major, Lt. Colonel, Colonel, Major General, Lt. General and General. I believe this is more or less similar to what we have today in Indian Army. We also had the last set of insignias categorised for the various functions of the military like anti-aircraft guns, workshop, Headquarters, anti-tank battalions and that of various battalions.
While one makes an exit from the hall, one cannot miss out the last few photographs; but yes nevertheless very important. Netaji is seen laying the foundation of the INA Memorial in Singapore (8th July 1945). Unity, Faith & Sacrifice is written there. We also have the picture of Netaji being taken to Saigon on 17-Aug-1945 (perhaps the last photograph available) besides the picture of the last letter written by him addressed to the members of INA.

Imagine that a person had the audacity to declare the country independent, hoodwicking the Britishers, getting the admiration of many global leaders, get the same ratified by few strong governments of those times, have a full barricade of proper army with the categorisation and insignias which the country would adopt almost entirely post independence. And all this, after quitting the prestigious ICS which was the most sought after service during the British days when the empire extended almost the entire globe. And top of it his entire Indian stint was spent in dhoti and in the typical Bengali attire even when he was elected as the President of the largest party of those times (now almost decimated to insignificance). Its difficult to picturise these things nowadays.

The best part of this particular escapede was that it rejuvenated me with some history and historical facts which somehow down the line had been lost somewhere in the gray cells. But yes, the tragedy of not been allowed the camera shall haunt me for some time.

Jorasonkho; the Nobel bari; 03 Aug 2014

The panaromic entrance

There was this special excitement amongst the minds of the discoverers today because the place choosen was about a Bengali (the most famous one till now) unlike many of the previous escapedes where it was purely on the historical perspectives of the Britishers or about their regale.

Courtesy Google (I am yet to claim myself as an established Kolkatan knowing all the roads and the B-roads), we arrived at Girish Park metro and some local quizzing saw that we were there in no time. The first thing that took me by surprise was the restriction on the usage of cameras (of any kind); infact mobile phones were not at all allowed in the premises. However, I was surprised to find herds of people comfortably carrying cameras, mobile phones; upon asking, it came out that only VC was supposed to give permissions. It would remain a request to all Kolkata acquaintances to help me out with the permission so that I can chronicle the same at the earliest properly (as I have done for the past many endeavours). Another thing that caught our attention was the soft and soothing buzz of Rabindra Sangeet (accoustics could not have been better). 
Thakurbari is held in high reverence not only because of the famous Rabindranath but because of the generations of Thakurs who stayed there during various phases of history. A lineage which would be reverred for times to come grew up there. I was all the more excited because of the subtle amalgamation of art, culture and education; things which the yo-generation of today despises and if at all it is into it does not respect them. Amongst the four-walls of the structure revolves the Bengali story of Bengal, the Renaissance, Bengal's cross-cultural association with the world and the enlargement of the Bengali outlook.    

The quote at the entrance speaks it all

The staircase leads us to the first room which is the Bard's dining room. It showcased few items related to the dining like the porcelain articles, few stools, the original wooden chair and the large table (presumably original). It had a rare collection of his photographs all around the walls; these included his visit to Japan (1916), with family members of Rash Behari Basu in Japan, in Burma (1916), with members of the Cosmopoli Club of Illionis USA, with Leornanrd Wright Elmhurst (his secretary) at Shantiniketan (1921), with Jogesh Choudhury and Sarala Devi, in Berlin (1921), Alexandria (1926), with Will Durant in US (1930), felicitation program at Moscoe (1930), in Iran (1932) and with Arab Bedoouins (1932).
Besides this room is the kitchen which was used by Mrinalini Devi (the Bard's wife).
The room next to the dining room is one of the living room of Tagore. It has a huge dressing room and two closets with few clothes worn by the poet. This room is also adorned with rare pictures. One of them is a picture with Upendrakishore Roy Choudhury (grandfather of Satyajit Ray), Priya Nath Sen (great and indispensible critic of Tagore's work), Baikunth Das, Pramathnath Roy Choudhury & Nagendranath Gupta in 1900. The bard is absolutely indistinguishable until keenly searched for few times; he does not possess any of the exteriors which we know him for. We also have separate pictures with Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, with Brojendranath Seal (1926), with Sir J C Bose & Loken Palit, at Visva bharati University inaguration (22 Dec 1921), with Subash Bose at the inaguration of Mahajati Sadan (Kolkata, 1939), with Mahatma Gandhi & Kasturba (1940) and with Satyaprasad, Soumendranath and their music teacher Srikatha.
Next, we are in another living room where we see large portrait of the poet and few pictures of London (1879-80). We also have a picture of Silva Levy taking a class in the presence of Gurudev (in Shantiniketan, 1941). A brahmacharya ashram was established at Shantiniketan in 1901; there is a picture of the same also. The greatness of the poet can be recognised from the very fact that he wrote a musical drama Valmiki Pratibha at the age of 20. This went on to be applauded by Goorudas Banerjee and Bankim Chandra also.
Next was a very vital room of the entire building where the poet breathed his last. It carries a photograph probably of his bedridden days (dt 07 Aug 1941).

“When I go from hence, let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable. I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus I am blessed—let this be my parting word.
In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play and here have I caught sight of him who is formless.
My whole body and my limbs have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch; and if the end comes here, let it come—let this be my parting word.”

These were his last words written by him in his own handwriting; the same is displayed albeit enlarged. He was active till his last breath. He dictated a poem before going to the operation theatre few days before his death; the same has been translated by Krishna Kriplani and is also found here. There is vibrancy in the air of this room; dont know why. An old fan rotates and freshens up the air around.

This room opens up to a balcony where we have huge bust of the poet. In the same we also have a model of the compartment of the train in which Tagore made his last visit train visit (Shantiniketan to Kolkata in 1941); this was gifted by the Railways to the museum. This overlooks a huge open centrestage courtyard (probably was used for family gettogethers) with a Roman theatre (styled archs).

The courtyard I just mentioned above

Next was a gallery in Eastern style. This contained paintings done on him and by his family members; the same is properly stored within a airtight chamber. Most of the paintings are 1910 onwards. The date and year is mentioned only on very few paintings. It has the paintings of Abindranath Tagore, Rathindranath Tagore, Gorachand Sugar (Portuguese Church, Hoogly), Hand All Bose, Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury, Sushil Sen, Pratima Devi, Kamini Roy, Sukhamoy Mitra (Boil), Gaganendranath Tagore, Kamalaranjan Thakur, Kalipada Ghoshal, Kshitindranath  Mazumbdar, Pranakrishna Paul, Manindra Bhusan Gupta, Nirod Majumbdar, Ramkinkar Baiz, Roop Krishna (gifted to Gurudev), Manik All Banerjee and Indy Rakshit.
The next room is a gallery in Western style. It includes various posters with Gurudev's photograph but I could not make much of it because of the written stuff being in Bengali. It contains various postage stamps issued on Gurudev namely USSR (1961), Argentina (1961), Brazil (1961), Romania (1961), Bangladesh (2011), Venezuela (1997), Vietnam (on the occasion of his 125 the birthday) and Bulgaria (1982). Amongst all the other important stamps, we have the Swedish Nobel Day stamp and two stamps of the Bard designed by Satyajit Ray and another by M F Hussain. We have stamp displaying Einstein and a stamp on Dak That (his famous play). The first stamp on the Bard was of 15 NP....for the uninitiated, it stands for Naya Paisa. Within the hall but in a separate partition, we have huge portraits of Babu Nundoo Colmar Tagore, Babu Surendra Mohan, Raja Sir Surendra Mohun Tagore CIE, Probodhendu Tagore, Maharaja Bahadur Sir Prodyot Colmar Tagore (by Porash Nath Sen), Saradindra Mohan Tagore, Cally Kissen Tagore, Soutindra Mohan Tagore, Gopal All Tagore, Gunendra Bath Tagore (Parash Math Sen, 1903), Prosonno Coomar Tagore CIE and Dwarika Nath Tagore (Parash Bath Sen, 1902). Each of the portraits are huge in size and speaks of elegance of the individuals, the regale of the family and the aristocracy in the looks.
Next we have two rooms filled with simple household items and there is also the family tree. We also have a a family maternity room; here the Bard was born like many of his family members. It has  photograph of a 13 year old Rabindranath, a large portrait of his father and of his mother, Sarada Devi.
Next we have a gallery supported by Mitsubishi Corporation which highlights the Japanese linkage to Tagore. This is a super-chilled chamber and is beautifully decorated in the Japanese style. We find details of the famous art, historian and curator Kakuzo Tenshin Okakura. Between Tagore and him, there was great mutual respect and influence; both shared major thoughts on Westernization and Renaissance. Needless to say, interexchange of ideas was reflected in the art by each of them. The gallery also has pictures of Vivekanand, Sister Nivedita and Lord Buddha. In fact the later is present not only in various forms but also in various representation and one gets a peek into Japanese art and styles too. There is a painting of Tagore and Okakura and their are details of the Japanese influence in Shantiniketan in their course work. There is a huge repository of information on Kampo Arai and his association with Shantiniketan. There is a huge area dedicated to pictures of Tagore in Japan. Quotations of the Poet written in "Japan Yatra" is mentioned. Another huge painting which is distinctly visible is that of Nand Lal Bose, Taikkan, Hishida, Kampu Arai and others (1924).
Similar to the Japanese-dedicated area, there is also a Chinese dedicated area which tells tales of Indian association and also Tagore's association with the country. I came to know that the grandfather of Tagore was a frequenter to China and he was also instrumental in strengthening the Silk Route. The rooms are tastefully decorated with Chinese lanterns which we normally see during their New Years' celebrations. Chang Kien was the founder of Silk Route; was enlightening for me. There are details of the ship of the family i.e. Opium Clipper Water witch. The collection also contains letters written by Gurudev to his Chinese friends. Some of the books which have been translated to Chinese are also exhibited.
The last part of the house was the Vichitra Bhawan which showcases some household objects of the family and that of Renaissance. Here also we have rare photographs of The Bard with Hellen Keller (1930), with Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (Shantiniketan, 1940), with C F Andrews & Raman and Chatterjee and in his own exhibition in Paris (1930). We also have the personal room of Mrinalini Devi with some of her belongings and letters written to her by the poet. We also have a chronological map of all the trips made by the poet abroad.
A floor above that is the Renaissance gallery. It has belongings of Thakurdas Bandopadhyay (father of Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar) and Vidyasagar. We also have the pictures of Max Muller, William Carey, David Hare and Henry Louis Derozio. The belongings of Abanindranath is displayed. Among the prized possessions is the CIE commemoration; the easel used by him is also displayed.
At the end, I stayed silent for few minutes reminiscing the family that was built over the generations. Rabindranath was just one of the many illustrious Tagores of his family; there were so many accomplish-ers in his family. One pauses to think of creating a generation; the name thus created shall surpass one's life on this earth rather than any materialistic assimilation.

Mesmerised and captivated...

As I always say, brickbats and bouquets welcome....

Goodbye, till the next story