At school I tucked into tiffin boxes filled with food from so many communities. I happily exchanged corn beef sandwiches for spicy Aloo Parathas. I will never forget my first taste of Sushi at my friend Ikuko’s birthday party.
Momo entered middle school that Fall, but Dadu never came back from that trip to India. The scrapbook that he had started for Ujaan from newspaper and magazine cuttings lay incomplete.
The turning point came in 1946 when I attacked an essay penned by noted author Buddhadev Bose in Parichay. The impressed editors, Hiren Mukherjee and Niren Roy, asked me to write for them. In 1947, Satyajit Ray, Harisadhan Dasgupta, fresh from the UCLA, and I, founded the Calcutta Film Society.
While Sulochana (Ruby Myers 1907 – 1983) and Nadira (Florence Ezekiel 1932 – 2006) were Baghdadi Jewish girls from Pune and Bombay respectively, Esther Victoria Abraham (Pramila) and her cousin Rose who introduced Esther to film were from Calcutta.
In many ways, Nagarik reflects some of the misgivings Ghatak felt when he first landed in Calcutta.
The nineteen forties were tumultuous. British and American soldiers were stationed in Calcutta, including Jewish service men. There was a British and American Chaplain (Bloch and Seligson) active in Jewish community affairs.
There are dozens of ghats along the river with architecturally significant structures, evidence of the rich heritage of colonial Calcutta.
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