Kolkata Diaries

“I come from London. But the buildings dating back to the British era in India are so beautiful,that they can give the ones in Britain a run for their money. I wish all such buildings were better preserved,” he says. However,somewhere during the freewheeling conversation,he says that his tryst with Indian history,after he boarded the train left him very ashamed of what his country has once done to smaller ones like India. “It gives me creeps – these stories,” he adds with an impish smile.

Yusuf Garaad Omar,head of BBC Somalia Services,felt that the cultural integrity of Kolkata had a lot to do with the ‘political policies’ of the governing party. As his assertion is met with a generous number of arched eyebrows,Omar clarifies,“If so many religions,classes,and vocations are living with issues as less as Kolkata has,there has to be something in the governing policies that is holding them together,” he says. Though,most of them refused to comment on West Bengal’s brand of ‘communism’,both Perrow and Garaad agreed that the city seemed equally divided. “While half the people want the communists to stay another half want them to be dethroned and are quite determined about it this time. This makes the election very interesting this time round,” says Perrow.