Every now and then, when I visit my Aunt’s place in Park Circus, I love heading up to the terrace with my camera. There’s something about looking out over Kolkata from above—the city’s ever-changing skyline always seems to offer something new and interesting to capture.
The towering presence of The 42 rising over Chowringhee is hard to miss. With its impressive height, it has added a whole new dimension to Kolkata’s skyline and is a reminder that the City of Joy can still surprise you. One might naturally imagine Mumbai, with its forest of skyscrapers, holding the distinction of having India’s tallest building, but Kolkata never ceases to surprise.
The Maa Flyover, which came up right in front of the house, also offers some wonderful opportunities for dramatic photography, adding yet another interesting element to the constantly evolving cityscape.
After spending the day at my Aunt’s place, we headed back home, stopping for dinner at KFC in Kasba. A simple end to a day that began with family, a little photography, and some great views of the city I love.
Started the day with a visit to Metropolis Mall, Hiland Park. Now 'malling' is my business, since I've joined the retail industry.
Mid day saw me at Avani Riverside Mall, the newest addition to the Howrah Skyline and Retail boom. The Mall has an amazing food court and several Anchor Stores like, Reliance Trends, Reliance Digital, Pantaloons, Bigbazar and E-zone. Among others Adidas, Nike and Bata have set up shop here. For Photography enthusiasts, the Opening of a Canon Image Square in the the mall is a boon. I did feast on a Maharaja Mac Meal for lunch. A mall without MacDonald is a bit hard to digest at times, so full marks for the Big M being present in this property.
And couldn't resist taking this photograph. I've never had the opportunity to click the Vidyasagar Setu from this side of the River.
Friends of mine, Rajika & Rajat had organised an Art Show at the upcoming luxury apartment project just behind Ruby General hospital called "URBANA". An intereasting concept to have paintings exhibited at the show flats of this project. the apartments priced between Rs. 1 Cr and Rs. 4.5 Cr sure would have takers for Art of this sort.
And what better way to do it, than some Wine and Cheese going around.
I had gone down the road from my office to an ATM to draw money. As I approached the ATM, I noticed black smoke billowing out from the adjacent street into the sky above Park Street just above Music World.
I quickly rushed to the corner and saw a sea of people gathering around witnessing smoke engulf the top three floors of Stephen Court.
What followed was simply tragic and inspiring.
The entire crossroads of Park Street, Free School Street and Middleton Row was like a sea of humanity, each witnessing the fire spreading through the top floors of the building. Policemen were at a complete loss trying to control the public which also hindered movement of Fire tenders, well at least the 2-3 of which had arrived at the scene.
The tenders could only be put to use, once the people, several of whom were out on the ledge of the building were rescued. Witnessing the rescue operations commence just made me realise how selfless people in Kolkata are. What we call lowly street people were the first to arrange ropes and ladders and even went to the extent of climbing up pipes to reach those people stuck up there.
The firemen had no equipment save their short ladders which were more than inadequate for the mammoth task ahead. The monolithic façade of this historic building would require more than those puny ladders if they wanted this operation to succeed. Not withstanding the challenges and obstacles in their path a couple of young men tied together a couple of ladders and managed to scale the side wall up to an external AC several feet below where the people were stranded. Then started the task of putting together rope and throwing it up to the ledge just above. They did manage to get a lady and a young man who in sheer desperation jumped down but luckily landed on the ladder and slid the rest of the way down into the hands of the people below.
The drama took a turn for the worse and flames leapt out of both windows on either side of the middle aged man in a blue shirt who was the last one up on the ledge on this side of the building. Three others had managed to flee to the Park Street side but were still stuck up there. All eyes were on the man in blue. As the young man below threw up the rope the first time, the crowd below held their breath and heaved in disappointment as he missed it. The crowd were now getting eager and the man in blue getting more engulfed in black and grey smoke. People urged the man below to throw the rope up quicker and he did for the second time. And again the man in blue missed it.
By this time people’s hopes were beginning to shake as the man in blue kept disappearing behind the clouds of smoke. And then in complete disbelief, as the smoke cleared we all witnessed the unbelievable. In sheer desperation, the man held on to the grill and turned around and lowered himself over the ledge, the young man below looked and tried his best to get a grip and then the unthinkable happened. The man in blue lost his grip and fell. Though I was recording all this on my mobile phone, I couldn’t believe what I just witnessed and lowered the phone in disbelief as the man plummeted down to the floor. I could see firemen below racing and trying to get under where he was falling, but with no cushion or net, I would believe the worst had occurred. In the split second that I had realised that I was also recording all this and I had lowered my phone and pulled it back into position, the worst had occurred right before my eyes.
There after, the crowd got even more agitated and rescue operations went into feverish pace for the remaining three stranded on the safer side of the burning building. Ladders were commandeered off fire tenders and young men started climbing up pipes to reach these three men above. Again, tragedy could have struck when the first man in sheer desperation, made an attempt to climb down the make shift arrangements. Some nylon ropes put together and a ladder half way up to them. He just went for it and gripped the rope with all his might and came sliding down and was somehow caught by the people below. His palms had the skin burnt off.
The next lad waited a bit longer and as the ladders reached closer, he decided to climb down gripping the rope till he reached the ladders and then climbed down to safety. The third fellow was now standing up there nervously. The young man in the red vest had managed to climb up just below him and beckoned him to make the effort and use the rope to climb down to the ladder just a couple of feet below but he seemed to nervous to attempt this.
Finally as though god had heard his prayers, from opposite sides of Park Street with lights flashing came two of the hi-tech rescue Vehicles with the crane arm. So as one went down to Middleton Row, the other positioned itself squarely in front of Flury’s in the middle of Park Street and then the arm started extending towards the young man up there on the ledge. Once the fireman reached up there and the man stepped into the pod safely beside him, there was a loud cheer from the crowd below. As the arm came down and the young man was back on the ground, the cheering crowd greeted him.
Meanwhile Firefighting Operations were underway on the burning side of the building.
I finally switched off my recorder and nearly broke into tears after witnessing the drama that had unfolded on the Kolkata’s Capital Street of Entertainment.
As I walked down the middle of Park Street back towards my office, I kept looking back and seeing how a tragedy could just take lives and yet bring a city together in the face of such trying circumstances. Common people rose above the adverse circumstances and performed uncommon acts of bravery.
This is why I LOVE KOLKATA. Truly a City that gives you Joy even in the most tragic situations.
After Park Mansion was declared a Heritage site, the Kolkata Improvement Trust got its act together and the building has been given a lease of life and old glory after it had a major makeover during the past few months. This is the Alliance Francaise Building which too has just got a new coat of paint. And what a coat too. Now when someone has to give directions, all they have to say is the red building behind the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh building. There is no way you can miss it!
During this fortnight off from work one of the things on our agenda was to visit the new mall that had opened at Rajarhat and so we did. City Centre II is a beautifully built mall, retaining the concept of open spaces from its predecessor but architecturally even grander. The basement parking is a n added bonus.
Since we were coming this far out, we also decided to check out the new Afraa Creperie. For the money we paid for the meal there, it was pretty decent. In fact the first thing we did was grab a bite there and then went on our “Malling” spree. It’s still far from being fully occupied, but has a fair number of shops. It’s sure going to become the newest hang-out that side of town.
On our way back we stopped at the SUBWAY near our place to pick up some Sandwiches for dinner as there was an offer of one-for-one going on only for one day and we decided to make the most of it.
After two days of the Banks being closed due to a nation wide strike called by the Bank Employees Union, today’s visit to the bank and the ensuing harrowing experience was inevitable.
Anyway while I was walking down to the bank, I finally decided to click a picture of this epic venture. Formerly “Hotel Raat Din”, this building has been under renovation ever since we moved into our office in Feb 2007. I have been watching this building from our office window, nearly everyday, for the past two and a half years and it seems to be a never-ending project. Considering the time and energy being spent on the build, I am quite certain this is going to turn out to be a fabulous Hotel when it is completed.
Anyway back to the bank. I wasn’t surprised to find a serpentine line outside the ATM outside the bank and what lay in store inside was even worse. All the teller counters had queues longer than I had ever seen. So I also got in one of the queues. I had a cheque and some cash to deposit. After standing in line for what seemed to be forever, one of guards announced that teller no. 11 was collecting only cheques, so I reserved my place in the queue I was in and popped over to teller no. 11 and deposited the cheque. One down, one to go I thought to myself once I rejoined the original queue. After about an hour there, I realised this could take forever and still not get done. The amazing thing was that our teller counter had a novice sitting in; probably just a week old at the job. I was quite amazed how the bank could have someone like him sitting in the booth on a day such as today when all hell was breaking loose.
Anyway, after over an hour in the queue and seeing negligible movement, I realised I would have to spend the rest of the afternoon in the bank if I wanted to deposit that money. I decided to find out from the help desk if there were any branches open on Sunday and decided to do it on Sunday at leisure.
This morning I came upon Mani Square, the latest mega retail space being readied for opening. It claims it will be the largest mall in Kolkata when it opens.
On the way, I couldn’t help notice the outdoor assault of the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team campaign. Apart from that, the likes of Reebok also getting in on the bandwagon and advertising their Kolkata Knight Riders merchandise. It has Shah Rukh Khan pushing it as the 12th man uniform. Also cashing in on the popularity of the IPL and KKR teams was a hoarding of Amul. I remember the Brand used to use this form or advertising a long, long time ago and I would look forward to seeing what the Amul hoarding would say about the latest political situation, or outcome of a game, or any current affairs topic that had made headlines.
You're wondering why I have a heading such as I have and pictures of trees and skyline. Well that's how my evening had begun. I stepped out onto the balcony and was amazed by the colour of the leaves of the tree outside the balcony. Well I had stayed there for so long but had never noticed how beautiful the colour of freshly sprouted leaves could be, well especially on this tree. So I dashed in for my camera and started clicking. The light was perfect. It was just a little after the sun had set and would soon turn dark. As it did my focus suddenly shifted to the bright red hoarding in the background among that clutter of outdoor signages. It was like a jungle out there and this was like the Lion among them beckoning readers to the land of Gold, Dubai.
Well much later when I had left and driven half way home I come upon the catastrophe that was visible from a distance. There were flames leaping into the sky behind some buildings and people running up the bridge with their belongings, some weeping, some with children in their arms as I descended the bridge. The closer I got the more evident it got that the shanty village behind the buildings was under siege by the raging fire billowing thick black smoke into the sky. An occasional explosion could be heard as traffic had come to a near standstill. Once near the site of the fire a manic crowd had taken control of the road and the police in the background standing behind the barricades on the road were just mere silent bystanders. The rowdy crowd were diverting traffic back, so we followed their direction and took a u-turn and headed back in the same direction we had come from towards Science City. I shouldn’t speculate, but the oddity of the scene makes me wonder, a fire that had engulfed such a huge area and looked menacing endangering lives of people and materials had yet not got the attention of the Fire Services? Just makes me wonder if there was some vested interested in the razing of all that “prime real estate”?
After a long hiatus, I'm back and in a new place. Driving here last night was insane. Firstly due to the lack of infrastructure, as the place is still being developed and secondly to make matters worse was the blanket of Fog that rendered all sense of direction useless. But getting up in the morning was a sheer joy because of the lovely view.
I had just finished seeing a property at Bengal Ambuja Udayan and was on my way to see another property at Greenfield Heights in Rajarhat. but due to a fumbling on the timings I had to spend about 45 minutes at Kolkata's best Hotel the ITC Sonar. So while I sipped on a Cold Coffee and made a dozen phone calls, I also decided to let my itchy fingers click some pics of the lobby and the view from it. I love the water-body that is part of the entire property.
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