The Lazy Eye

Charles Dickens and Calcutta? What the Dickens! An illustration of the Christmas Carol- Cambridge University Just a couple of days back, I happened to come across an intriguing writeup about the Dickens connection with the City of Joy and I was genuinely surprised that I had never heard about this earlier. Because I simply had to write on this, I decided to uncover a bit more information on this topic and gosh, what a story . For any average Calcuttan, Christmas chiefly means two things- A trip to Park Street and Plum Pudding from Nahoums. And yes, for the middle-class Hindu kid, hanging a stocking is mandatory. What North Calcutta is like during Durga Puja, Park Street is the same during Christmas. It attracts a huge crowd every year during December, with its fascinating Christmas aura with festive lights and Christmas shops. While digging deeper into the Dickens archives, I came across this tragic incident which links the London novelist to the former British capital. L...

"The Lazy Eye" (originally "The Calcutta Nomad") was created in 2020, as a space to catalogue a compilation of local myths and legends collected from my many excursions to former zamindari estates in rural Bengal.   While the blog has long strayed from its original purpose, it now serves as a journal-of-sorts, as I try and document my work on sound archives, home-spaces and memory. Well, mostly the second.  (Okay, I mostly work with Islamic piety movements, and I would really like to introduce a section on Sufi texts and traditions in this blog...sometime soon).  This blog is home to micro-essays, a truckload of academic jargon, and a documentation of everything that catches my 'lazy eye'. Here's my  Substack.  :) الامان

After walking past a row of posh residential homes and apartments at a side street in Chatra, you will find yourself facing a cast-iron gate leading to a magnificent structure- the sprawling aristocratic 'Bonedi Bari' of the Goswami family of Serampore, an erstwhile old colonial town in the Hoogly district of West Bengal. A friendly chat with the caretaker at the gate will gain you an easy entry into this glorious mansion. Walking through a short passage from the driveway, you will find yourself at the huge courtyard, taking a peek into the glorious past of the Goswamis. The Serampore Rajbari Who were the  Goswamis?  Just like one of those many aristocratic families of Bengal, the Goswamis were an enlightened, affluent Brahmin Zamindari family in Serampore. Serampore, a peaceful village by the banks of the Hoogly, was a part of Danish India from 1755 to 1845. It was then known as  Frederiksnagore, after king Frederick V of Denmark.     ...