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A city with ancestral roots in music and poetry, Kolkata is no stranger to eminent personalities residing in its streets and alleys. However, a fact unknown to many is that the Urdu-Persian poet Mirza Ghalib too had been a distant scion of the city. Ghalib was born into a family descended from Turks who travelled from Uzbekistan to India during the reign of Ahmad Shah, the last of the Mughal kings. Ghalib himself had mainly lived in Delhi apart from a few other temporary sojourns in different cities.
Even though he was never a permanent resident of Kolkata, he had lived there for a period of about one and a half years at a red-brick house in Beadon Street in north Kolkata. He had come to Kolkata to restore the full pension in lieu of his family estate annexed by the British. He had previously tried in vain to appeal his case in Delhi, Firozpur, Bharatpur, Kanpur and Lucknow, after which he decided to appeal directly to the government of the East India Company.
This pension was important to him because he needed it to survive in a city like Delhi where he lived at that time. He pawned his pen to get the money to travel to Kolkata.
Ghalib had left for Kolkata on November 1826, and reached the capital of British India on February 1828. In his numerous letters from Kolkata, Ghalib has referred to places like Simla Bazaar, Gol Talab and Chitpur Bazaar. It is believed that Ghalib used to pay a monthly rent of Rs.6 and Rs.10 for accommodation to stay at two different houses in Kolkata. “This must have been long back. It could be even before our ancestors bought over this place. There is no one around here to give any details about his stay in this house. However, I do feel inspired when I hear that he had lived in the same house where we now stay.”, said Priti Dhar who now lives at 133, Ramdulal Sarkar Street.
The house has an old, green staircase, red floor and an open courtyard next to an old reservoir. However, apart from Ghalib’s own letters, there is no one to describe the house as it was at that moment in time.
This house is located at a place in north Calcutta the streets and alleys of which are brimming with memories from the past. The famous sweet shop of Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandy, exemplary of the old Calcutta, is situated just round the corner; however, the employees who work there are almost dismissive of the queries that they need to attend regarding the poet.
The highly westernised ambience of Calcutta during the British Raj had left a strong impact on Ghalib’s mind. He wrote his first intikhab titled ‘Gul-e ra’ na’ – a selection that is evenly split between 455 Urdu and 455 Persian verses - during his time in Calcutta.
In Gulzar’s Mirza Ghalib there is a scene where Naseeruddin Shah, playing the poet, talks about his fondness for Kolkata. He had professed his desire to stay on in this city time and again. Describing Bengal as a “kamal ka jagah”, he had said, “Bengal 100 saal peechhe bhi jetein hai aur 100 saal aage bhi.” ( “Bengal lives both a 100 years in the past, as well as in the future.”) Such has been his connection to a city which has remained true to both its past and its present.
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