Snippets from the cosmopolitan world of the Second City of the British Empire.
The soft blurry edges of a world lit by gaslights was as much a reality as a metaphor for the world of the nineteenth century. The overly crisp outlines and hard edges of the later world of fluorescent lighting were unavailable to the world of the nineteenth century. Perhaps nothing more conspicuously captured this blurriness … [Read more…]
Consumer society, as we know it today, emerged in the blue haze of cigarette smoke swirling under gaslights. Cigarettes were one of the first truly global mass-produced commodities. In the process of becoming such an iconic commodity that defined not only the late nineteenth century but one that continues to cast its long, long shadow … [Read more…]
Opaque, murky and shadowy are some of the metaphors one frequently has to invoke to describe the bygone era of gaslights. Yet, some of that past was also lucid and transparent. At least at first glimpse. Nothing exemplified that transparency and lucidity of the past than the diaphanous little images dubbed “transfer pictures” by the … [Read more…]
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…]
Blazing fires cast bright lights. Bright lights evoke stark, hard edges. The gaslit world of shadows is its opposite. Edges appear blurry and ill-defined. Mystery, romance and magic are its bywords rather than definition, clarity and certainty. The year 1857 was a year when the flickering world of shadows was abruptly supplanted by a towering … [Read more…]
Looking back through the mists of time, the soft-yellow light of the era of gaslights seem to brim exclusively with mystery and romance. Its stuffiness, grubbiness and drudgery are all too often forgotten. It is easy to forget that the Victorian era was after all wrapped tightly in red tape. No other era in history … [Read more…]
Many ancient religions look upon fire with reverence, but no other religion has elevated it as high as Zoroastrianism. Atash, or the Holy Fire, is not only a hallowed medium through which spiritual insights become available to humans, but it engenders the very visible presence of Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity. With such an exalted … [Read more…]
A new Indian nationalism gradually began to take faltering baby steps around the 1870s and 80s and as the newly nationalistic Indians looked around them for inspiration, many of them embraced Japan as a model. Here was an Asian nation that had rapidly begun to emerge as an equal of European imperialist powers and sought … [Read more…]
Capital cities of large empires throughout history have been melting pots. Traditions and people have blended and braided with each other to give rise to new peoples and novel traditions. Calcutta, in the gas lit era, was no different. One of the most arrestingly beautiful testaments to this blending can be seen in several distinctive … [Read more…]
When Prometheus stole fire from the gods, we do not know in what form he actually carried the fire. Most denizens of gaslit cities, however, carried fire in their pockets. That is, in the form of a box of matches. Calcutta was no different. Though local match production in the city did not acquire significant … [Read more…]
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