Snippets from the cosmopolitan world of the Second City of the British Empire.
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…]
It was in 1843, only five years after the then-young Queen Victoria first sat on the throne, that the modern Christmas Card made its debut. Sir Henry Cole and his artist friend, JC Horsley, devised the first Christmas Card. The postal rates had just been drastically reduced with the introduction of the ‘Penny Post’, and … [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…]
The 1860s and 70s were a difficult time for the old and noble families of Delhi. The changes ushered in after the rising of 1857 had precipitated the decline of the city that had begun with the invasion of Nadir Shah over a century ago. The grandeur of the old Mughal capital was gone and … [Read more…]
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