[BITList] Fw: Fwd: Reminiscing about Calcutta...

[FA]

JOHN
MADE GOOD READING
FRANK

On 8/22/2013 9:13 AM, John Davison wrote:
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> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> *From:* John Davison <davison.g at xtra.co.nz>
> *To:* "BIship at yahoogroups.com" <BIship at yahoogroups.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, 22 August 2013 9:12 AM
> *Subject:* Fw: Fwd: Reminiscing about Calcutta...
>
> Pardon iF A BIT OFF TOPIC M BUT IN VIEW OF PICS OF SHIPS IN PORT , AND 
> AS I FONDLY RECALL NAMES LIKE BROKLEBANDS , ELLERMANS , BANK LINE , 
> AMERICAN MAIL LINE , INDIA STEAM , SCINDIA , GREAT EASTERN , ASIATIC , 
> STEEL LINE AND OTHERS ETC M HERE IS SOME OF THE SOCIAL LIFE , I WAS 
> LAST THERE IN 2003 , BIG CHANGES OF COURSE BUT THE SOUL OF CALCUTTA 
> STILL LIVED ON !!!
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> I thought you may enjoy this...
>  SALAAMS
> JOHN
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> Another paean to the Calcutta that was.
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> Life in Calcutta in the Seventies
> - Sarabjit Singh
> <http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/life-in-Calcutta.asp#a>
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> Tees Saal Baad, thirty years later, is as good a time to reminisce as 
> any, I
> guess. Nostalgia strikes especially in the company of old buddies or when
> the drinking gets heavy. There is to it a bitter-sweetness, much like a
> hospitalization where the attending nurse resembles Ivana Trump. The 
> spirit
> and the step become lighter and the eye mistier in the full knowledge that
> the good old days will never return.
>
>
> It was in Calcutta, now rechristened as Kolkata, in the early 70s that I
> started my career as a young Boxwallah. In the executive world, much like
> the rest of India, British influence was waning. The India Tobaccos 
> and the
> ICIs, the Dunlops and the Metal Boxes still had expatriate chieftains.
>
>
> The winds of liberalization were yet to blow, although the Minoo Masanis,
> the Nani Palkhiwalas and the Piloo Modys never failed to have a dig at the
> pseudo-protectionists The government of the time suffered from severe
> paranoia. There was a deep fear that the country's independence would be
> jeopardized if foreign companies were allowed to grow. Production 
> capacities
> of such organizations were pegged and penalties imposed if these were
> exceeded. In fact, there were times when in order to hide high 
> profits, the
> books would be closed days before the year-end.
>
> These factors in the external environment ensured low competitive 
> pressures.
> Consequently there were few, if any, shooting stars on the firmament. Most
> young executives plodded along, knowing that promotions would come not 
> from
> hard work and spectacular results, but from retirements or the odd heart
> attack. There was therefore all the time in the world to enjoy the 
> good life
> and not worry overly on the career front.
>
>
> As all hard-core Calcuttans will swear, it was possible then and 
> probably is
> now, to rise above the squalor and the filth, the teeming hordes, the
> traffic jams and the unbelievably poor civic amenities, to a finer
> sensibility. There was a spirit and bonhomie that kept the city from 
> dying.
> There was also an ethos, which ensured that a good time could be had
> regardless of the size of one's wallet.
>
>
> Calcutta had its problems but it also had its compensations - its rich 
> club
> life being one. Very few cities can offer a greater variety.
>
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> For sports lovers there was a Rackets Club for Squash, a Cricket and
> Football Club for those as well as the more exotic games of Rugby and 
> Cycle
> Polo; there was a Tennis Club which boasted of members who had played 
> in the
> Davis Cup; a Golf Club with over seventy water hazards and a Swimming 
> Club.
> Indians were barred from membership of this institution till, in a
> well-publicized incident, a Minister of the State Government dove into the
> pool, dhoti and supporters and all, to signal the end of an era.
>
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> There was the Tolly Club where one could, in theory at least, ride a horse
> between golf shots.
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> Then there were social clubs like the Punjab Club, which catered to a
> primarily Punjabi clientele whose major activities were eating, drinking,
> playing cards and flashing diamonds.
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> The Saturday Club was more cosmopolitan while the Ordnance Club and the
> Officers Institute at Fort William played host to Army officers who danced
> nearly as stiffly as they marched. The Dalhousie Institute and the Rangers
> Club were enlivened by the carefree, happy-go-lucky spirit of Calcutta's
> rapidly declining Anglo-Indian population.
>
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> The staid Bengal Club and the Calcutta Club epitomized the true culture of
> the Brown Sahib. The list of clubs was quite endless and an enterprising
> young Boxwallah could ensure year-round free membership by 
> participating in
> the various Merchants Cup tournaments. These tournaments were open to
> mercantile firms and drew many a pot-bellied senior executive onto the 
> court
> or playground.
>
>
> Each club had its own particular charm. The atmosphere at the Calcutta
> Cricket and Football Club Bar was akin to an English pub. The smoke and
> alcohol-filled evenings usually ended up with some lusty singing of bawdy
> songs. 'Diana, Diana, show us your legs, a yard above the knee' would be
> belted out by a dozen raucous voices. The bartender's name was BI - short
> form for British India.
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> The Royal Calcutta Golf Club served the juiciest steaks in town, which
> washed down with a bottle of beer after a golf game was great value for
> money. You couldn't have a better meal.
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> The Rackets Club answered the prayers of perspiring squash players in the
> form of a bartender called Abdul, who specialized in mixing Nimbu Panis,
> fresh lime juice, which were arguably the best in the city.
>
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> Clubs apart, there were other small touches, which gave life in Calcutta a
> flavor different from any other city. Christmas Week for instance meant a
> huge Santa Claus at the head of Park Street. The street itself would 
> be lit
> up from end to end by one of the lighting companies. Small bands equipped
> with trumpets and drums would stand outside the festooned restaurants. 
> For a
> small tip they would play any of the old favourites - Elvis or the 
> Beatles,
> Pat Boone or Paul Anka while their benefactors swayed (or was it tottered)
> and hummed along.
>
>
> Saturday nights meant Louis Banks, Braz Gonsalves, Pam Crain or Usha Iyer
> live at Trincas or the Blue Fox on Park Street. If one was feeling
> adventurous, there was Isaiah's Bar on Free School Street for a different
> kind of action.
>
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> Sunday mornings were reserved for jam sessions at Firpos where cocktail
> sausages would be served gratis with the beer. It is a sign of the times,
> literally and figuratively, that restaurants today serve peanuts.
>
>
> Among the other options was that of watching a late-night movie at the
> Globe, Elite, or one of the other English movie theatres in Central
> Calcutta.. These had been converted from drama theatres and still bore
> vestiges of their former roles with their quaint balconies and bars. One
> could grab a quick beer before proceeding to Nizam's Restaurant for their
> mouth-watering Kathi Rolls. The chicken, mutton, egg or aloo rolls or
> combinations thereof, were a great food attraction. Calcutta's essentially
> egalitarian character revealed itself in the fact that the well-heeled in
> their cars as well as the not-so-well-off in hand-pulled rickshaws 
> would all
> descend on this institution. Sometimes, you could come across a slim,
> fiftyish man who would serenade your sweetheart with old love songs while
> drumming with his fingers on the bonnet of your car.
>
>
>
> I wonder how much things have changed in these thirty years? Have the
> pressures of modern-day existence converted young executives into little
> more than automatons programmed to deliver? Do young men still step onto
> soggy fields to play five-a-side football by floodlight and emerge bruised
> and mud-caked? Or are they content doing eyeball exercises in front of the
> TV?
>
>
> I wonder if Diana is still showing her legs and whether there is any basis
> for comparing the lives of today's young executives and ours.
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> We won't know, will we, till some Japanese corporation invents the Time
> Machine. Considering that Man has already reached the Moon, can this 
> be far
> behind? H G Wells would certainly be pleased.
>
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