Yes, The River Knows

The Kolkata river is a layered experience. It nourishes the city, of course, and feeds its soul. “It’s very difficult to describe how the river influences us. It runs in our blood,” says filmmaker Goutam Ghose, who has used the river as a metaphor in a number of his films. In the 1984 film Paar, he traces the journey of migrant labourers from Bihar through a couple, Naurangia and Rama (played by Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi), who come to Kolkata in search of sustenance. After many failed efforts to find work in the city, the two decide to return home. To earn the fare, they agree to drive a herd of pigs through the river, which makes Rama believe that she has lost her baby. The iconic river-crossing scene is a metaphor of the indomitable human spirit, of course, but it also highlights the desperation of migrant experience in a city like Kolkata. For the river is central to fringe existences in Kolkata. “If you walk around the ghats of north Kolkata, you will realise how organically migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh engage with the river,” says Ghose.

Evenings in Ahiritola Ghat corroborates Ghose’s point. At Sadhu Baba’s tea shack near the ghat, a giant pot of milk bubbles continuously, even as Sadhu Baba (he refuses to identify himself by any other name), a striking figure with dreadlocks, pours out his special tea for us in kulhars. “Nowadays, children of rich people too come here. They come on their bikes and cars and have chai with litti. They want to sample our way of life for a few minutes,” he says, with a laugh. Evidently, for him, the ghat is a means of sustenance. “I travel across the country through the year. I visit melas, spend time in sadhana. But running this chai shop is a passion. It’s how I connect with worldly desires,” says Baba.

The ghats throb with bawdy Bhojpuri numbers post sundown. “But contrary to popular belief, they are safe places to be in. They stay awake late into the night and commuting from here is really convenient,” says Samata Biswas, a lecturer with Haldia Government College and a resident of Jorasanko, near Shobhabazar Ghat.

Swastik Pal, who is studying photography in Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, and is doing a project on the ghats of Kolkata, claims a walk down the riverfront from Prinsep Ghat to Ahiritola Ghat in the north, introduces him to many Kolkatas. “At Mallick Ghat, which is close to the Howrah station, the lives of thousands of migrant labourers revolve around the ghats. After spending the night on the ghat, they freshen themselves in the Hooghly, and then work all day at the flower market there. They eat their meals in pice hotels around the ghats and their evenings are spent smoking chillum on the steps of the ghat,” says Pal.

In his 1951 film, The River, Jean Renoir makes Hooghly the reigning deity of Kolkata. He was not too off the mark. “To say that the Hooghly is the lifeline of Kolkata is stating the obvious. However, the river has a cultural, social and religious significance. The way we look at the rest of the world and the way we are perceived is, in a strong way, determined by the river,” says Kalyan Rudra, a member of the Ganga Monitoring Committee. But the river never got its due, he adds. “It is extremely sad that a river we consider so holy and integral to our lives is treated with such disdain. We let it go toxic by dumping waste into it, we let vessels rot in it.”

Perhaps, that’s why West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to “reclaim” the riverfront stirred such an emotional response. Under this Rs 35-crore project, ghats that were till recently home to junkies and “anti-social” elements have been given a makeover, modelled on the promenades along the Thames in London, the Seine in Paris and the Nile in Cairo. “We have to understand the history of the river and then engage with it accordingly. In Kolkata, the riverfront nurtures different subcultures, but it should be made accessible to the middle-class as well. Kolkata needs open spaces where citizens can spend time without worrying about safety or commuting. This projects aims to achieve something like that,” says conservation architect Nilina Deb Lal, currently doing her doctorate on heritage buildings of Kolkata.

At the refurbished, tree-lined walkway from Babu Ghat to Prinsep Ghat, the infamous “trident lights” (chosen by the Trinamool government as the icon of the beautification drive in Kolkata) jar against the symmetrical beauty of the 150-year-old Gwalior Memorial. The interlocking jigsaw tiles make the pathways look like most other urban parks of India. Yet, there are hundreds of visitors everyday. “I may not agree with the aesthetics of the place but I understand that a lot of college students hang out here all the time. If you ask me, I prefer the seamier side of the riverfront, but I am glad that the city is finally waking up to this beautiful river again,” says Pal.

For Ghose, whose films, including Antarjali Yatra (1987) and Padma Nadir Majhi (1992), are inspired by the Hooghly, the riverfront, in its new avatar, is good news. “But I hope we don’t end up sanitising it in the name of reclaiming it. It’s good that we are creating spaces where people from the higher strata of the society can engage with the river. But that shouldn’t be at the cost of its engagement with the lower strata. The labourers of Mallick Ghat shouldn’t be driven away from their home, simply because we need a new park there. I am sure that will be kept in mind,” says Ghose.