‘There is a girl in Calcutta whose name is Margot’

In 1945 Captain Joseph Genovese described some of his experiences ‘as a pilot with the Ferry Service of the RAF’. How far his accounts are to be trusted is a different matter, but Genovese wasn’t the only one to write about Margot of Karaya Road. Margot’s name had spread far and wide in the British empire, then on the verge of collapse. John Costello says Margot was known as far out as Cairo.

‘She is fair, although not blonde, wears her hair brushed hastily back, shoulder length. Unexpectedly fresh-looking, with clear gray-green eyes…’

Much of the writing around Margot is unfortunately tasteless or fetishised. Genovese, who offers the most elaborate account I’ve read so far, can’t keep himself from orientalizing his experience. ‘Or perhaps it should be put this way: Margot lives in the Orient, in a city called Calcutta.’ He mentions her ‘barefooted and lovely young Indian maid’ who let him into the apartment—an apartment that ‘was like something out of the Arabian Nights, with little brown-skinned servant girls tiptoeing around the rooms, their bare feet sinking deep in the furry pile of the Oriental rugs.’ It’s 1945, Joseph! Seriously.

Allegedly a few years prior to his meeting with Margot, there was a murder in Bombay where a young British doctor was shot dead at home. Sensational news reports followed and it was reported that the young widow had known the murderer for a while. A love triangle murder was suspected, but the lady went scot-free. I have not been able trace this so far, and it is based on Genovese’s report.

57 Karaya Road was then in Calcutta’s suburbs—it is now on the stretch between A.J.C. Bose Road and Park Circus market. Genovese says that he and his friends had decided to pay Margot a visit. But it was her off night, and Genovese who had not entered the house—it was a brothel—was fortunate to meet Margot. They had heard of her at the 300 Club—a club that was founded in 1936 by ballet dancer Boris Lisanevich, who is also responsible for introducing Chicken à la Kiev to the Calcutta platter!

‘And then a voice, soft and husky and musical in the darkness, said, “Lonesome, soldier?”’

The two of them apparently spoke for an hour or two while his friends made merry inside with ‘Margot’s girls’. Genovese asked her out on a date the following night. His Galahadian impulse, as he puts it himself, is brimming over, as he imagines himself standing up for her against the ‘stuffed shirts in Calcutta’s high society.’ Margot’s interactions are expectedly smooth, as she stylishly rebuffs an overbearing Colonel at Firpo’s. A rather beautiful description follows:

From PrintCollection.com

‘Originally the plan had been to go on to the Grand Hotel Bar after dinner, but when we stepped out into the bright lights of Chowringhee Road, the main thoroughfare of the city, and found a cool breeze blowing and the moon bright among the stars overhead, we decided to go for a walk. Across from us was the city’s principal public park, taken over in part by the Royal Air Force for use as a landing field and airbase, but still providing many acres of smooth lawn and shade trees for public use. We strolled there for half an hour or so, observing and talking the scores of people lounging on the benches or sprawling on the grass…Afterwards we wandered farther down Chowringhee, taking brief excursions into narrow little side streets lined with merchants’ carts and illuminated only by candlelight. At midnight we heard the bells of St. Anne’s Cathedral [sic] toll the hour, and little later we watched the crowd coming out of the Metro Theater.’

I like to think that they saw it that night—if at all—as Dilip Kumar DasGupta painted it. As always, Calcutta Confusion hopes to learn more about this lady.

This is part of my on-going research into the history of the Park Circus/Karaya Road area. Suggestions and references welcome.