Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Brabourne Road

A few months ago I set out, grim-faced and all, to get myself a high-altitude photograph of the stretch between St. Andrew's Church and the Portuguese Church. I tried two or three buildings at the Pollock Street crossing which seemed to house both residences and offices. But the people at the gates were most reluctant to consider the possibility of taking a photograph from their upper storeys. So finally I had to settle for one that was a good four or five stories shorter. This was not an office/residential building but rather a warehouse. The gentleman at the gate looked at me suspiciously when I walked in and asked him who I could talk to about going up. I told him that I would like to take a photograph from as high up as possible. Did he have a problem? He continued to look suspiciously. An accomplice of his swooped in and explained "Vantage chaichhe, kaka. Chhere dao. Shooting korbey." This worked and quite happily he let me go up.

I would be happy if someone better informed clarified this--but I thought I spotted a fair amount of impressive Art Deco architecture around the area, that have subsequently been ruined by random and unplanned extensions and suchlike.

The Maghen David stee...

Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary

Looking towards Writers'. In the distance St. Andrew's Church.

The renovated Neveh Shalome

Maghen David steeple
Just to add to that, there's an image of the Maghen David taken quite a while back (not sure when exactly) that is available on the Jewish Kolkata archive, back when the building right on Brabourne Road hadn't been built. It's from a similar position, I'd imagine, and you can see the side-face of the synagogue. The Neveh Shalome too is visible:
"Magen David Synagogue 6", Recalling Jewish Calcutta, accessed November 17, 2014, http://www.jewishcalcutta.in/items/show/392



Saturday, November 8, 2014

The Dutch in Chinsurah

The Dutch Cemetery in Bengal website was launched at Presidency University yesterday, 7 November 2014. Here's my report on the ETIC project blog on the event.

‘Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie’, or the ‘United East India Company’

Dutch V.O.C. factory in Hoegly (Hugli-Chuchura, Bengal)(Hendrik van Schuylenburgh, 1665)
Courtesy: Wikimedia