BOOKS
Calcutta: Repossessing the City
The book covers the length and breadth of an old city that
continues to grow, keeping contemporary relevance. It traces
a path from Chitteshwari in the north to Kalighat in the south,
taking the reader into the heart of lanes and ‘paras’ or
neighbourhoods that are intrinsical to the city Job Charnock
is said to have founded. It is replete with images of character
and history. Where the visual image stops, the power of the
word picks up offering detailed captions with each photograph
so that the reader can savour the soul of the city.
As Tapati Guha Thakurta, art historian recollects, “The
images can be seen as a self assigned role of remembrance,
recuperation and salvage, in turning its back resolutely on
the spaces of transformation and the spectacle of change.” She
offers us vignettes of "old" that has seamlessly
blended with the new. The representation and chronicling she
brings it gives the book its character.
ISBN: 9788187107620
Publisher: Om Books International
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