The Hindu Business Line : Photo exhibition shows `Calcutta' during the Raj and after

The Victoria Memorial Hall of Kolkata is currently hosting an exhibition of photographs on Calcutta (as the city was known at the time the pictures were taken) shot by Jayant Patel — all the pictures in the collection relating to a period stretching from just before Independence to the middle of the fifties.

The photographs in the exhibition, which was inaugurated some time ago by the West Bengal Governor, Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi, were selected by Dr C. Panda, Secretary and curator of the Victoria Memorial.

About 62 photographs are on exhibit ranging from a shot of hackney carts drawn by emaciated mares lined up outside Howrah Station (1948), a 1955 photograph of Old Court House Street lined with impressive edifices (including the well-known Hamilton's landmark which has now been brutally reduced to just the groundfloor from the three as shown in the photograph) to one of a barefooted Jawaharlal Nehru sitting and chatting with Madame Chiang Kai Shek at Government House (Raj Bhavan) in 1942.

Most of the city shots indicate that Kolkata, during the period, was at the height of its imperial architectural glory with, among other things, city traffic signs painted far more neatly and prominently than they are today with pedestrians being more willing to abide by them (the zebra crossings, for instance) than is presently the case.

The exhibition will remain open till the year-end.

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