An alumnus of St Xavier’s School and Kalyani University West Bengal Probal J. Bhattacharyya earned his undergraduate degree in economics. Born and brought up in Calcutta he spent a major part of his life in the city between the 1960s and the ’80s forming a lifelong attachment that endured despite his nearly three-decade-long stay abroad. Influenced by his mother Probal wrote sporadically as he was busy in the corporate world building brands. He now lives far from the madding crowd in a small town near Shimla nestled amidst apple orchards majestic hills and forests with cedar and pine trees pursuing his passion for writing. ... Read more Read less
‘Calcutta is remarkable! It is a world where everything except a remedy for death is available. Every task is easy for its talented people its market has an abundance of everything except the commodity of good fortune.’ – Mirza Ghalib
Those who lived in Calcutta during the 1960s–1980s—before it became the Kolkata of malls and neons and flyovers—swear by the ‘city enchantress’ its ambience and ethos. Calcutta Jhalmuri is Probal J. Bhattacharyya’s ode to a bygone era. In evocative prose these stories evoke the sounds and sights of a city now irrevocably lost in the sands of time. The myriad characters offer an insight into the whole social and economic spectrum—from a freedom fighter to a college playboy a nautch girl and a battered housewife—as they leap out of the pages to paint an irresistible portrait of an extraordinary city. Wistful and elegiac this is one unforgettable ride down memory lane.
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