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Kolkata: A Street Named Memoir

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  • Kolkata: A Street Named Memoir

    Kolkata Newsline, India
    Dec 28 2008

    A Street Named Memoir

    EXPRESS FEATURES SERVICE
    Posted: Dec 28, 2008 at 0407 hrs IST


    Kolkata Pragya Paramita takes a walk along Park Street with a group of
    enthusiastic young friends to know more about the city Walter Savage
    Landor once famously wrote ' `Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes,
    May weep but never see, A night of memories and sighs I consecrate to
    thee' ' of his beloved Rose Aylmer who sailed to Calcutta with her
    aunt and died two years later. And the remains of Landor's beloved,
    who died sometime in the eighteenth century, are one of the many
    obscure graves dotting the Park Street cemetery. It's not one of the
    best graves in the cemetery though but it certainly is one of the
    things that will be pointed out to those who take the Calcutta Walks
    along the entire Park Street in the morning.

    Calcutta Walks, an endeavour started by a few enthusiastic young
    friends, has been organising walking tours around different parts of
    the city for the past one year and lately they added Park Street to
    the list of historical roads on their itinerary. Some of the other
    walks they conduct are in Dalhousie Square, Chowringhee, Sovabazar,
    Bow Barracks to Burra Bazar and Kumartuli.

    Park Street, says Iftekhar Ahsan, founder-member of the walk, is one
    of the most interesting and fascinating streets in the city. And a
    trip down this road could never get boring.

    The Park Street chapter starts with a quick history of the old Asiatic
    Society. Formed by Indophile William Jones, it was also one of the
    first societies to be formed in the country. While one of the famed
    jewel still stands, the other wonder at this end of the road, has but
    disappeared into the oblivion. Hall and Anderson, that used to be one
    of the biggest and oldest departmental stores on this side of the
    continent, was patronised by the royal families of the country. `At 5
    lakh square feet, even in history, it dwarfs over the modern
    departmental stores,' says Ahsan.

    >From the past to the present, one of the best- kept secrets of the
    road is Flury's bakery situated behind the Apeejay House where breads
    and muffins would still be baked in an oven that was brought to the
    city in 1905 till about a decade ago when the place was renovated.
    >From the back doors of the `gentle lady', as Flury's is affectionately
    called, it's then a stroll down with quick references to the Queen's
    Mansion, that was lost by a certain JC Golston in the races and the
    Stephan Court founded by the Armenian Aratoon Stephan, who used to
    drive a wheelbarrow in the streets of Calcutta and 25 years later
    ended up owning the Grand Hotel.

    `Interestingly, Park Street was known as the Burial Ground Road and
    the place used to be marshes. There were settlements in North Kolkata
    and Chowringhee but not here. This was basically an elevated road
    going to the cemetery,' says Ahsan.

    While Park Street to most of its patrons may be the road of the Sky
    Room and the wild girl as the Trincas is called, Ahsan makes it clear
    it's more than that.

    `There is the Goethel Library in St Xavier's College housing over a
    thousand books printed before 1800, and of course the San Soucu
    theatre patronised by Esther Leech who died when her dress caught fire
    in the theatre before her performance. Today, it's the St Xavier's
    auditorium,' says Ahsan.

    >From there it's a quick walk to the grave of eighteenth century
    British poet Landor's beloved Rose Aylmer. But the cemetery, as Ahsan
    points out, is a place that requires a full day's dedication. So a
    walk among the graves, a quick look at the graves of Derozio and
    another Indophile Charles `Hindu' Stuart, and then it's back to
    Flury's for a breakfast.

    `I have been to plenty of such walks in other cities like Singapore,
    Hyderabad, Delhi and I realised that there could not be just one way
    to see the city, and this is one of the unique ways one can experience
    the city,' says Ahsan.
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