I never grew up in Kolkata, but as a child every summer we used to visit Kolkata to spend vacation at my Pishima's house (paternal aunt). I still remember the joy when the train used to pull over the Howrah bridge and I could feel the gentle touch of breeze as we whooshed over the river Ganga.
River Ganga goes through the city, Howrah district is on the left and the city of Calcutta or Kolkata lies to the right. So it was double delight for us, once to arrive at the Howrah station the train would chug up on the bridge and secondly, moments later while going to the city,we used to cross the bridge again, but now this time on a bus.
I had this Khadi dress material lying with me for quite sometime.While I was planning to get this stitched in the form of a Kurta, another part of me wanted to add a personal touch to this fabric piece. And I wanted to add Howrah, the capital of my state on this piece! Since 2002, my parents are residing in Kolkata. I miss the physical joy of crossing the bridge on train and bus, but still, sometimes I get to cross the bridge and remember those childhood joys.
As Eiffel Tower symbolizes Paris, or West Minister Abbey symbolizes London, so does the Howrah Bridge to Kolkata. The bridge has made numerous appearances in movie posters, novels and has also been in fashion circle for quite sometime. And you can realize as in poster below, Prosenjit carries off the Howrah Bridge with an elan on his T-shirt ( still from the Bengali movie Prakton) and I thought, why not me?? :)
While Howrah bridge makes a fashion statement on Coffee Mugs, T-Shirts, mementos, but to me it is also a metaphor. A metaphor of transformation where people from different parts of India and abroad come to the city in search of employment, education , habitat.
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| Top: Movie poster from an old movie Howrah Bridge, Bottom left : Still from movie Prakton; Bottom right : Still from movie: Do Bigha Zamin
And since it is spring in Houston, I decided to make the bridge in pink, to celebrate the advent of Azaleas!
Here is how the final piece looks!
 But yet, this is not really the final version, this will be stitched in the form of Kurta. May be after few months I will be able to post the final version of my project. Till then , here is my city! Enjoy! |
