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| Das (left), Gandhi and Taylor at the book launch. (Anindya Shankar Ray) |
Under the high ceilings and the large windows of the wood-panelled hall in Raj Bhavan, the interior glowing in chandelier light, the turbaned staff moving discreetly outside in the corridors leading to a durbar hall with a giant throne, you feel you are sitting under the arches of Time. So it was appropriate that White & Black, Journey to the Centre of Imperial Calcutta, a book on Dalhousie Square, was launched at Raj Bhavan. The book, with black and white photographs by Christopher Taylor and text by Soumitra Das, was launched by governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
Das hates being called a nostalgia specialist as much as he hates the poverty-squalor stereotype of Calcutta. For him Dalhousie Square is not just history in concrete, but an ongoing story. Its pavements and offices are teeming with people, even as the buildings, some of them the finest specimens of colonial architecture, lie in ruin.
"Landlords in cities like Rome, Paris and London are no more heritage lovers than the ones in Calcutta. But the governments there make it worth their while to preserve heritage buildings," he said.
The reticent Taylor, an English photographer based in France, spoke on how he had been capturing the city through his lens for three years.
Gandhi said, Lord Dalhousie, who had lived in Raj Bhavan, was a man of contradictions: he annexed princely states even as he laid the material foundation for the modern age in India through post and telegraph and railway services. The present times are contradictory too — even as heritage lies in neglect, there is increasing awareness about the need to preserve it. Hence the importance of the book.
Book Details
Author: Soumitra Das (Text) & Christopher Taylor (Text)
Year: 2009
ISBN: 9788189738433
[ Hardcover, 28 cm., pp. 236, photographs 205 ]
[ Price: RS. 2,495.00, US$ 53.09 ]
Some photographs from the book:
The Mackinnon Mackenzie building
The Mackinnon Mackenzie staircase
Yule House
Raj Bhavan
Mukherjee House
Treasury Building
St. John's Churchyard
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