The Epic City

This was a tricky read for me. Sometimes it was so negative I couldn't stand it. Other times he made Kolkata sound amazing and fascinating. As someone who has never been there and knows far too little history and culture of the area, I can't begin to comment in a decent review - so think of this less about the book and more about me. There were times I thought I would give up on it and other times I really enjoyed it.

It made me also question “what is travel writing for?” Should it always be positive? Should it always be from the perspective of one in the know? Should it be all-knowing and say “This is what Kolkata is” or acknowledge they're seeing a tiny fraction of what is there - but that fraction could be one of many contradictory realities of the place. I don't think any of us could hope to present a perfect picture of any place no matter how much we know so then how do we present our own perspective?

What I did take away from this, though, is how little history I do know. A tiny fraction of partition, NOTHING about the famine of 1943, nothing of the Naxalites there in the 70's. So I guess I'm glad I read it even I didn't always enjoy it. It opened my eyes to a whole bunch of things I didn't know about before and that will likely result in my going down a whole bunch of other interesting rabbit holes.

Choudury is undoubtedly a gifted writer who has a rare ability to simultaneously describe physical surroundings and the emotional, human stories that they contain. This is not so much a travelogue but rather a reflective work about his enduring connection with Calcutta, where he finds the enduring push and pull of hope, suffering, tradition, culture, modernity, and history. His evocative style reflects his love of poetry.

I do think the first 2/3 of the book is better than the final section, which suffered from a little too much didactic anthrpolologising, and at times became almost too specifically personal to effectively resonate with the reader.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned a lot about the history of Calcutta.