Calcutta photos: the Alipore Jail, the lake, friends, and an old dog

I made a very brief trip to Calcutta, mainly to attend my friend Shamya’s sessions around the Ritwik Ghatak book at the Kolkata Literary Meet. Walked around the Rabindra Sarobar lake area with Shamya and another old friend Arijit (who had once famously danced in glee around my car after we watched Godard’s Pierrot le Fou at a Delhi film fest). Had a decent time in the Alipore Jail/Museum grounds where the fest was held, a space with many striking murals and statues and probably a few ghosts too. (Arijit and I passed snarky comments on what was said at some sessions, and had a running joke about a flogging statue being a convincing depiction of lit-fest organisers and recalcitrant speakers.)

Also had a solid Bengali dinner at Tero Parbon with friends including Soumik Sen (whose new show Jazz City will begin streaming in March); caught up, too briefly, with friends and acquaintances from the lit-community, including Jashodhara Chakraborti, Salil Tripathi, Sandip Roy, Arunava Sinha, Sohini Chattopadhyay, Kanishka Gupta, Manu Joseph, Jerry Pinto and others (there is only very limited photo evidence of all this); and spent a bit of time in Shamya’s Jodhpur Park flat, which I last saw, and stayed in, a full 27 years ago during post-grad.

Sharing a few pics at the bottom of this post. But before that: one of the highlights of my stay was getting to meet Arijit’s 12/13-year old Muzu, who came with him to Shamya’s house - a tad battle-scarred from a fight with a cat - and whom you see here. (Not that she paid me much attention.) She is clearly very well looked after and cared for, but in her eyes - with traces of incipient cataract - and general demeanor (looking a bit lost when her human was out of sight for a moment) I recognised the characteristics of the ageing, vulnerable dog. Things I have noticed a lot with some of our older community dogs in recent years (many of whom get badly neglected at precisely the stage when they need the most care and reassurance) - and which I had my own closest brush with when looking after our Kaali in her final debilitated months.

When I returned to Delhi, I saw a similar watchful vulnerability in Lara’s eyes for pretty much the first time. Something that felt subtly different from the more general nervousness that has always been part of her personality. She is 11 this year, the clock is ticking, I have been giving her daily kidney supplements for the past few months after some worrying test results, and it’s easy to anticipate (especially given her increased weight) that regular joint supplements will soon be needed too; that her movements will get slower and more strained. (She already makes very human-like complaining grunts once in a while when jumping on or off the bed.) For many years now Lara has been the most important “person” in my life (and certainly the only constant now) - and grateful as I have been to have her around so long (especially after having lost Foxie when she was only four), I also have to be in a regular state of preparedness for the end, and for everything that will precede it. It’s something I think about every time I see a really aged dog - whether one that’s feebly fending for itself on the streets or being well looked after in a comfortable home.

Here is a link to my Kaali tribute post from February 2024. And the other Cal pics are below.

(Pics from the Ritwik Ghatak Delhi events are here. And here's a 2009 post about the film Paa, and my speculations about Foxie living to an old age - which of course didn't happen; it may or may not be relevant to what I wrote above)