Kalkatta

by Kunal Basu

Jami is the Gigolo King of Kalkatta. Smuggled into India from Bangladesh and given refuge by his uncle, a leader of the ruling Communist Party, he grows up in Zakaria Street—a Little Baghdad of the old—dreaming of becoming a pukka Kalkatta-wallah. When friendship with a local gang disqualifies him from school, he ends up as assistant to a passport forger, and then a masseur. Soon enough, innocent massage leads to ‘plus plus treatments’, and Kalkatta opens its doors, drawing Jami into the world of the rich and famous, housewives, tourists and travelling executives, and occasionally to high-paying and dangerous ‘parties’. Danger looms, too, from rivals and the police, and the ever-present risk of losing his cover. Jami’s shadowy double life takes a turn for the unexpected when he meets Pablo, a young boy who suffers from leukemia, and his single mother Mandira. Made to oscillate between his refugee family, the neighbourhood gang, his massage-parlour clients, even the cultured world of Bengali intellectuals inhabited by Mandira, he succeeds in becoming a true Kalkatta-wallah, but a stranger to himself. Until his love for Pablo threatens to destroy everything, and drive him away even from his beloved Kalkatta.

Genres: Indian Literature

318 pages, Hardcover

Published November 16, 2015

About the author

Kunal basu was born in Calcutta. Raised by unorthodox parents, both litterateurs and political activists, he developed an early love for the arts: painting, acting and writing.

Since 2001, he has published four novels, a collection of short stories, written a few screen plays and (mostly unpublished) poetry.

Reviews

[Gorab]

3.5
Another book bought on an impulse for an interesting cover without knowing what its about. Thanks Smi for notifying of jaw dropping discount, and then buddy reading with me :)

My acquaintance of Kolkata comes mostly from a couple of Tagore's works, and a few contemporary films. This one was a shocker.

Deals with immigrants trying to mingle within the city and earn that status of "Kalkatta-walah", agencies to mint forged documents, and male gigolos under the facade of massage parlours. Haven't encountered male gigolos in Indian society in any books/films before.

The theme was interesting with a grim setting, handling the human side of criminal characters, topped with raw and realistic abusive language. A taboo topic with authentic backdrop speaks a lot about the not so easy research done for etching this out.

[Ahtims]

This book is : (a BR with Gorab)
Is Grim
Is Poignant
attempting to cut through psyche and soul with sharp strokes
Full of woes
Full of life
Expectant
Tragic

I will never forget Jami, who showed me the underbelly of Kalkatta, and who was a gentle, good soul who had the ill luck of being born a refugee and having had to struggle in vain to built up a life for himself.
Will also remember Miri, Ammi, Mushtaq., Pablo, Mandira and a myriad of other characters.

This was a mesmerising read ... and I am left vaguely dissatisfied and disheartened.

[Amorita George]

This is one of those books that leaves me undecided on how I feel about it. The book is an ode to Kalkatta, both its beauty and its darkness, and pays tribute to the desire that so many hold to feel like they truly belong to the city. Jami is an incredibly well written character, managing to be sympathy provoking while still being nuanced and flawed. His relationship with his sister Miriam was so special and was a beautiful testament to how siblings share a bond that supersedes individual personalities differences.

As someone who exclusively reads English writing, I also really enjoyed how it incorporated Hindi colloquialisms throughout. The book managed to organically make Indian references without pandering to a non-Indian audience and overly explaining itself. I think this made the world and the characters Basu built more believable and immersive.

However, I struggled with the other characters. While incredibly varied with distinct personalities and backgrounds , they all seemed to be superficial, one-dimensional characters that only served to advance Jami’s journey. That contributed to my second issue with the book - its cadence. The book courses through one stage of Jami’s life to another at a neck breaking speed that prevents you from really ever delving deeper into the how these events shaped or impacted the characters. Despite following Jami from childhood into adulthood, it never felt like these dramatic events were shaping him - they just seemed to be happening to him. To be fair, Jami does reflect on his life and his outlook from time to time (eg. how his relationship with Pablo changed his motivations and priorities), but I think the pace of the book made it feel less believable/natural.

While I’m glad I picked this book up and was genuinely touched by some parts of it, I didn’t feel nearly as invested in this story as I feel like I ordinarily would have been with such a larger than life plot.

[Manikandan Jayakumar]

3.5

Life of a street dog, born somewhere and moved to a new street, strugling to survive. What if a straw dog is feed/nustured by a human and that person abandoned the dog later. Whats the fate of that straw dog when its desperate, other than squashed by a cat like most of other dogs.

Cons : Not deep enough and doesn't have multiple layers.

Props : Easy to read. Pace is constant from begining to end. Couple of metaphors worked for me.

One poetic place to be noted : Entering, I stood facing the lamp. My shadow fell across her(mother) lap, and the buxxing stopped. [Its in a point where his mother came to know about him secrets and distancing from him. Jami longing for motherly affection.]

[Avishek]

Absolutely brilliant writing, conjuring up familiar yet less explored imagery of the 'City of Joy', if one may even use the term. The class commentary is not a by product here, it is the entire book, but what an entertaining read.

By the end of it, Basu has sucker punched you so many times, each time harder than the one before, that you are tired to keep reading and just want the tale to end. To see Kalkatta from up above, a beautiful bird's eye view, which flattens everything like in a painting.

[Austin Dunlow]

this book is so good in theory (the last five chapters are actually incredible) but idk it just couldn’t hold my attention very well i feel like other people could really like this though!

[Rajiv Bhattacharya]

Finally this book breaks through my reading block. Kalkatta chronicles the life of Jamshed Alam , an illegal Bangladeshi migrant trying to make a living in Kolkata. The book is dark, intense and not for the faint hearted. For those who watch Bollywood movies, I have a simple litmus test to help you decide if you should pick up this book: If you like Anurag Kashyap’s movies you will like this book :) I also found the book cover quite interesting. Though the play of words is not explicitly mentioned by the author I think it’s very clever - Kala (Black in Hindi) + Kutta (Dog in Hindi).

[Smriti]

Some books don't have much of a plot, but it has a story to tell. This is what this book was for me - a book of heart.

[sreya mukherjee]

It is a heart wrenching story but i found the ending to be abrupt...

[Keshav]

Firstly: Absolutely LOVED The Miniaturist and The Opium Clerk. Read both multiple times. Kalkatta OTH - is dismal. It was a triumph of the will to finish it. Still uncertain whether Basu is utilizing this very awkward prose-style in a clumsy attempt to infuse the reader with some sense of insight into the Indian character, or whether he's just become a terrible writer. The book is just a giant trash heap of cliches about Bengali cultural mind-set (many of which are true - but still, cliche). While I'm not Bengali, I have many Bengali friends and can say that Basu paints the characters with a very broad brush, as petty, naive, provincial, overly talkative, obsessed with how others see them, feckless, unable to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, and above all - always seeing themselves as victims. The story which purports to be an insightful look into underworld life in Calcutta is really mild stuff, as compared to real-life criminal culture in Calcutta.

If you crave really great fiction about the Indian urban underground check out "Narcopolis" by Jeet Thayil. Or non-fiction, Maximum City by Suketu Mehta.

[Madhura]

Kunal Basu’s ‘Kalkatta’ is not like any other book on Calcutta. It is not the story about the City of Joy, which most of us know and cherish. This is not a nostalgic rendition of the charms of a dying city where time stands still and strangers are made to feel at home. This is Jami’s ‘Kalkatta’- vicious, unsparing and unsympathetic.

Read more here: https://storiesfromtheletterbox.wordp...

[Shreyasi]

THIS IS NOVEL, THIS IS ART. Today's generation don't know what books they read and call that shit "Masterpiece". Reading Young adult books and calling it "Best book ever written" makes me laugh. This is what the new generation needs, not that CoHo books and shouting, forcefully giving the title of "Best book". This what a writer should do. He perfectly served the purpose of a writer. This generation needs writer like him. Not those who even have no idea what writing can serve.

[Sushobhan]

The intricacies of the city, and the life of its people, through all classes, rich, middle or poor is well explored and presented.
Situations do shape out how one lives their life. The ending was a little off beat given how thrilling and raw the flow of the whole book was.

[Ruwani Hettiarachchi]

A raw look at the tenuous fabric of Calcuttan subcultures.

[Virtuous Puru]

A mind-blowing masterpiece. My heart goes out to Jami.

[Aritra Chakraborty]

Quite a refreshing and different take on the refugee settlement in Kolkata.

[Aadya Dubey]

Kalkatta. It's an emotion. A place where people who don't belong try to find home. To fit in.

Kalkatta. It's different for everyone. His Kalkatta.

I have not known this city intimately but I can feel Zakariya Street under the shadow of the Big Mosque. Champaka, Keyatola, Alipore. Even the mausoleum of Job Charnock.

Pablo, Mandira, Rani, Miri, Ani, Rakib, Monica, GG, Yusuf, Munna, Uncle Mustak, Jahanara, Are few of the many characters that are alive in these pages.

And Jamshed Alam. Perhaps Rani was right. Nobody can expect you to be hurt. Even if you're falling apart.

The review from Jeanette Winterson is so damn accurate.

"This is Kunal Basu. Listen to him"

[Biju P.R.]

Loved reading it. A literary fiction. I loved that discussion- why you should study history instead of commerce.

[Rishi Sahgal]

I thoroughly enjoyed Kalkatta. Basu has a knack for bringing the city's sights,sounds, and smells to life, and creates an engrossing world that is often hidden or out of sight. The narrative moves at a good pace and holds the reader's interest.

The shortcomings of the novel are in the character development. Most characters exist as archetypes rather than real people, designed to fill a role and enable Basu to make a point. It would have been good to get a little bit more substance from some of these characters, who had the potential to be very interesting, as evidenced by Rani and Miri. Strangely, although we spend the entire novel with Jami, he remains somewhat aloof and ephemeral....again perhaps because he's more of a cypher than a complete character. Basu seems to have preferred creating a mosaic rather than a character driven novel.

I found the ending to be somewhat abrupt, but I understand the reason why it ended as it did .

[Nischay Mall]

The book is written in a manner which is easy to read for almost anyone. Being from Calcutta-Kalkatta, I was able to associate with the places and their descriptions pretty well and the story line was fine, but somehow I kept feeling depressed throughout the book. It kept giving rise to one too many negative emotions in me and well, that's what a well written piece of literature should do. It should be able to capture your attention completely, regardless how you feel.
At the end I did feel that this book lacked in something though. Maybe it was the element of surprise, perhaps a stronger story line or even the way it gets over, I cant really spot it.
At the end of the day I would say this is an average book for a Calcuttan.

[Vikas Datta]

All I had to say is here:

https://in.news.yahoo.com/no-city-joy...

[Samir]

Kalkatta is one of those books that entices, pulls you in with fierce passion but in the end leaves you with a feeling of mild discontentment. Overall a good read though...

[Sushmita]

Interesting, fast-paced and leaves you wondering about the Calcuuta you always thought yo knew...

[Anita George]

This was a bit hard to get into at first, but was well worth the effort. Well written, intelligent, and surprisingly moving!

[Puja Bhattacharya]

What I Felt about KalKatta in a few words :
https://bhattacharyapuja.wordpress.co...