Walking on a Sunday Morning

A very nice Sunday after ages. Went for the walking tour. My walking tour host/guide, Martyn an Australian knew Calcutta better than me, but then he's been in Calcutta for 25 years now. The tour was supposed to cover Churches and cemeteries in Calcutta.

We started off from Lenin Sarani and Chowringhee crossing and walked towards the first church on our itinerary, St. John's church. St. John's church is the oldest church in Calcutta. It was constructed sometime around 1780s and was designed by Lt. James Agg. It was built beside Job Charnock's (the purpoted founder of Calcutta, though now some old zamindar families and Hindu historians beg to differ) mausoleum and the compound also has a memorial for the Britishers who perished in the black hole of Calcutta. The inside of the church was peaceful (I find most churches peaceful and they seem like sanctuaries of calm to me) and had a nice stained glass window and an interesting painting of the last supper. I do not know the artist, but I mean to find out. The church is still in use and has a Sunday service every week at 8:00 am. I was somewhat dismayed to see the neglect and the indifference, especially around the memorials and Job Charnock's mausoleum. Three sides of the church consist of government offices and it seemed to me that people in the offices used the church as a giant dustbin. I could see shreds and whole plastic carrybags, paper and piles of rubbish.

From St. John's church we proceeded to walk to St. Andrew's church, also called the Scottish church here in Calcutta, bang in the middle of BBD bag and next to Writer's building. We passed through the Raj Bhavan where we peered through the gates at the magnificent building and gardens until the security personnel (well, ok, only one of them) came up and asked us if he could help us. Martyn asked him whether he could take us on a guided tour of the Raj bhavan and if he could not, then he could not help us at all. Then, we walked through the High Court and Martyn showed us some government buildings that were originally stables for the inhabitants of the Raj Bhavan. I am so amazed by old buildings and architects. They took care and meticulously planned even unimportant spaces like stables and servants' quarters. Sundays are the best days to walk about in BBD Bag/ Dalhousie. The streets are virtually deserted and you can actually see buildings, mighty fine ones at that, and not just people everywhere. Walking by the Lal Dighi which is a pond or lake or tank (depending on your perspective) bang in the middle of BBD Bagh, we came to St. Andrew's church which is right next to writer's building. Writer's building is the seat of the West Bengal government's secretariat. St. Andrew's church was built by the Scots who were protestants and who apparently wanted a different church of their own. To irk the Catholics, they built the spire of St. Andrew's taller than that of St. John's. The church is still very well maintained and has a huge organ. It is almost austere, like most protestant churches and still very much in use.

From St. Andrew's church we walked to old Mission row road to the old mission church. I have passed it millions of times but never noticed it, mostly because it was so old and crumbling. When we reached it, the service had just got over and the congregation was dispersing. I did not get too much history about the mission church mostly because I was lagging behind and wondering why we Indians are so careless about our monuments.

From there we had a choice to either see St. Paul's cathedral or to proceed to the Park Street cemetery. I can see St. Paul's anytime, so we elected for the cemetery. We walked from Rafi Ahmed Kidwai road to A.J.C. Bose road to Park street and reached the cemetery. On the way, Martyn showed me examples of the Art deco styles of architecture. The orient cinema theatre is a prime example. I've never bothered to actually pay attention to buildings, but now I will. Every curve, every balustrade, every column tells a story, only if you care to find out about it.

We finally reached the Park Street cemetery that is relatively well maintained. It is the oldest cemetery in Calcutta and is filled with mausoleums and tombs mostly in the shape of houses and spires and surrounded with crotons and other evergreen shrubs and plants. One look at the epitaphs and you know who payed for it! The most celebrated tomb is probably Rose Aylmer's whose tomb was inscribed with Walter Savage Landor's famous lament. I bet most Indians have read it at some point or the other in some English text in school. Like most English cemeteries of the time, the majority of the tombs belong to women and children, who probably found tropical conditions too much to bear. The cemetery was cool, peaceful and decaying. There were feathers lying around that belonged to pigeons, crows and sparrows. Some of the tombstones had fallen off and some were crumbling. Despite the obvious decay, it was peaceful, as a final resting place should be.

The last stop was the Scottish cemetery on A.J.C. Bose road. It was huge and rambling and much in use. The most famous tomb I found belonged to the founder of the Bethune school for girls. Curiously, I found many open tombstones. After walking around and observing that life really returns to dust, we walked out and disbanded. Tired, thirsty and very happy with the walk.

I will post the pictures sometime soon. I got some interesting shots of the churches.