Homeward bound

Thirteen years after leaving Kolkata,photographer Saibal Das,48,found himself drawn back to its chaos and vibrancy. His second solo exhibition titled Tales of Chitpore by Tasveer,retraces the early 19th century aura of the city through its narrow alleyways and thriving tradition of Jatras on Chitpore road. “This is where the city was born. It is one of the oldest roads of the city,” says Das.

Das’s images include poet Rabindranath Tagore’s birthplace Jorasanko — which has now been converted into a museum with photo frames hanging on the boundary fence to commemorate his birthday. Another picture shows clay idols of goddess Durga lined up in Kumartuli (the idol makers’ village) where artisans are resting after a day’s work.

“There is a lot of culture that coexists. Running parallel to the Hooghly river,the 4 km road gave locals a livelihood as they collected clay from the river banks to make ornaments,” explains Das. The 50-odd images take a nostalgic look at the main lifeline of the city. All pictures have been substituted with translated verses of satire from an old Bengali folk novel,Hutum Pechar Nolkha by Kaliprassana Sinha. Das says he will return to Kolkata soon to continue his nostalgic journey.