Description:

“KOLKATA - CITY OF JOY”

Kolkata is rightly called the city of joy for the exuberance and vitality it exudes.

The city of joy is a bustling, colorful metropolis with a treasured history and a rich heritage evident in the way the city still retains the glory of its age old culture in its Victorian book stores, century old auction houses, unchanged clubs, the charming trams and the passion in its people, be it for life, mishti doi or cricket.

Promoted by the rich and the intellectual, Kolkata has become a focal point for culture and cuisine.

Few years back, the French author, Dominique Lapierre wrote a book on Calcutta and named it, City of Joy. Since then Calcutta has got this name.

The author had gone round every corner of the city including the slums, where he observed the human qualities of the poorest section of the society and that had impressed him a lot. In fact he had lived in Pilkhana, one of the most notorious slums of Howrah.
He observed that in spite of their extreme poverty, they had high level of fellow feeling. These aspects of the city have been highlighted in the book called, City of Joy.

The author has surely proved his tremendous capacity of telling story in this book, which is brilliantly written.

I grew up in Calcutta… spent my working life in Mumbai and now I am spending my life in Kolkata, which according to me is the best metropolis for creative people.

Generally, Bengalis are emotional and fun loving people and enjoys life through games, literature, debates, ADDA, various types of social functions, dance, drama, cinema etc.

But the vast majority is quite poor and finds it difficult to make both ends meet. Also due to the self defeating work culture introduced by the party in power over last 30 years, life has become quite difficult particularly for the poorer section.

For each and every essential thing required for day to day life, be it water, power, fuel, domestic gas, ration from govt. shops etc. one has to struggle, particularly the poorer section.

I observe that due to the difficulties faced by people in day to day life, people have become very impatient and a quarrel starts at the drop of a hat. It is not so in other metropolis like Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai etc.

Because of this, I cannot contribute to the idea of calling Kolkata, City of Joy.

Poor or rich it is the city of all…

Everybody baring income are happy at their level….

Regards…

Sachin Samuel
director / executive producer
Bootpolish Talkies
+ 91 9867287873
sachinsamuel.tv@gmail.com