The phrase “Under the broad and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lay” from Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “Requiem” may be the finest way, to sum up, what will happen to a 120-year-old house that is ready to be demolished in Kolkata’s Kalighat neighborhood.
Before construction crews hammer away at the Edwardian home, a group of artists transformed it into a canvas for an experimental art ensemble. The home is decorated with semi-circular protruding balconies, slatted green-painted Venetian windows, marbled floors, patterned cast-iron railings, and intricately worked cornices.
A group of artists was able to paint or set up a number of props as a requiem for the house known as “Jagat Nivas,” including frescoes on old walls, “alpana” (decorative floor motifs) on the red-oxidized stairs, graffiti in Bengali and English, paintings framing a window-lit room, and experimental lights to depict the history of a darkened room.
Actors gave live performances while dressed historically to help set the scene for the house in the early Twentieth century.
A simple cradle made of a Sari was in another room, perhaps to represent the numerous births that the house, which is close to the famous Kalighat temple to the dark-complexioned Goddess of destruction in the eastern metropolis, witnessed. One room had Japanese-style ink and brush paintings to connect it to the history of a World War 2 veteran Maj (Dr.) BC Dewanjea who migrated from Burma and purchased part of the house from its original owners.
As the time to leave the expansive house on Nepal Bhattacharya Street draws near, the current residents, who include family members of Burmese refugees who came to the city about 60 years ago and bought the place, are attempting to preserve memories of this refuge after a heartbreaking exodus from Rangoon.
The port city of Kolkata, which the British built to serve as the capital of India and dubbed the “Second City of the Empire,” has boasted Gothic, Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Nouveau architecture over the years, not only in its public buildings like the Writers’ Buildings, National Library, Town Hall, and Victoria Memorial but also in the homes of the city’s princes and the wealthy upper class.
However, as families dispersed and the city’s population increased, the demand for new housing resulted in the destruction of stunning family homes with colonnaded pillars and Art Nouveau spires in order to make way for modern apartments.
In Kolkata, a list of heritage structures has been created that are either of considerable historical significance or architectural merit. The standards for these structures state that they cannot be replaced. The mansion erected by steel magnate Sir R.N. Mookherjee or the palace of Rabindra Nath Tagore, and even a modest home where the celebrated linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji formerly resided, as well as popular eateries and candy stores, are all marked with blue plaques for their historical significance.
However, as the need for housing rises, many beautifully constructed homes of the Bengali “bhadralok” (gentry), like Jagat Nivas, will continue to perish.
According to Knight Frank, Kolkata registered 38,000 residential sales deeds in the nine months from January to September 2022. The May, June, and July 2022 figures were respectively 230%, 14%, and 124% higher than those reported for the same months in the previous year.
The graffiti at the “Museum of Air and Dust” quotes the folk song “Diney diney khasiya poribe rangila dalaner mati” (“As the days go by, ornate houses will crumble to dust”), which may best capture the truth about this great city.
News Mania Desk
