As India Builds (Part 2)

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 | 5 comments

My family is old Calcutta. We had rice paddy fields that greened as monsoon washed over them. Heavy-limbed mango orchards bearing the juiciest and most fragrant varietals. Homesteads. A home nestled in my grandfather’s legendary rose garden in the now traumatized Bengal-Bihar border. Our relatives’ houses dotted Calcutta. These old houses in the alleys of Pathuriaghata and Shyampukur were sprawling places, bearing the stories of Calcutta’s now receding past.

In the halls of the Ghosh family of Pathuriaghata, the All Bengal Music Conference was founded in 1937, and Indian classical music, then a nascent art form, was nurtured under the patronage of Bhupendranath Ghosh. At the time, the mid-nineteen hundreds, only Baiji’s (courtesans) sang publicly.

Manmathanath Ghosh was the first patron to invite Irabai Bardekar, a legendary musician, to the inner wing of his home, despite the protests of his wife. He considered it his honor to host talent, and the legendary Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar met his Guru Allauddin Khan there. The family’s drawing room once overflowed with music, food, hookah smoke, attar fragrance. Today, the front gate remains open. A lone boney stray cow often loiters into the yard. Belgian mirrors in the foyer collect dust.

The Pathuriaghata House of Manmathanath Ghosh

This segment is part 2 in a 8 part series Segment 3 →
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