The river of time flows darkly, washing away the remnants of lives and loves. It is difficult to peer into its inky bosom to uncover the secrets it holds. Yet, every so often, it randomly deposits tattered traces of those it has washed away upon its shores. It was on a ramble along this shore … [Read more…]
It was the 30th of December 1879 and Caesar came home on the Star of Africa. Of course it wasn’t the ancient Roman monarch, Julius. It was an humble seacunny, Trazpero Caesar. Or was it Claspero? Some even called him Trisporong, or simply Proone. Names in the gaslit by-lanes of Calcutta flickered as much as the … [Read more…]
It was an uncomfortably warm morning in central London. The thick black fog that had hung like a pall early in the morning had moved away and a muggy, hot morning followed. The newspapers wrote of an impending storm over Europe that was causing the unusually warm weather. Notwithstanding the heat, the capital of the … [Read more…]
Moksad Ali got off the SS St. Louis at New York City on the 18th of June 1897. He and eleven other Bengali Muslim men from Hughli and Calcutta had taken the ship first to Southampton and thence to the Big Apple. On board they had travelled, crammed into the cheapest quarters with a German butcher, … [Read more…]
Courtrooms are places of striking contrasts. The stern formality of the law, the stark walls of the buildings, the austere attire of the officers of the law – everything gestures towards predictability, formality, and cynicism. Yet what frequently unfolds in these steely courtrooms are tales of tenderness, love, unpredictability, passion and much more. Be it … [Read more…]
Police Courts are hardly places of sentimentality. Murderers, robbers, fraudsters and petty thieves rather than star-crossed lovers are the usual denizens of these courts. It is the seamier underbelly of a city that leaves its marks on the white-washed walls of its Police Courts. Yet, perhaps only to remind the mute walls that stand silent witness … [Read more…]
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