The road that changed my life was College Street in North Kolkata. It was the street that transformed me from a callow and sheltered schoolgirl into a college student excited to learn about a world that seemed to spread its many-splendoured petals around me. It was while attending Presidency College, located right on this street, that I became fascinated with Bengal politics, world literature, and the (in)famous Coffee House where heated discussions of both would take place.
College Street was also where one found the best Kolkata street food, until now strictly forbidden to me by my mother, who was sure I would fall sick if I ate any. But on College Street, I was introduced by friends to jhalmuri (spicy puffed rice) and phuchka (that ubiquitous Indian snack known in other cities as golgappa or pani puri ). I’ve been to many expensive restaurants later in life. But none provided the special guilty thrill of standing around the phuchka stand with my girlfriends, chatting between bites of the delicious potato-and-jeera-water-filled snack, while keeping a careful eye out for any “aunties” who might report my misdeeds to my family.
Kochi, Kerala, 12-02-2013: Indian-American author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni during an interaction with The Hindu in Kochi on Tuesday. Photo:Thulasi Kakkat
But most of all, College Street made me aware of the wonder of books. There were, of course, famous and historic bookstores on the street, such as Dasgupta and Co or Bani Library. But those were not as interesting to me as the little pavement shops that lined the road. Filled with used books and managed by tolerant shopkeepers who didn’t mind if a student browsed without buying, these pavement shops became my Aladdin’s cave. I never knew what treasures I might discover there! Best of all, the books were cheaply priced and within my meagre budget. One day I found a beautiful leather-bound copy of the songs of Rajanikanta Sen, my mother’s favourite songwriter, for only a few rupees. I bought it and hid it in the back of my almirah and presented it to my mother on her birthday. I still remember her incredulous and joyful smile on that occasion.
I think those College Street afternoons spent paging through volumes, smelling their special old-book smell, was what gave me a lifelong love for reading and collecting books. Perhaps, it was also on one of those afternoons that a tendril of desire began to grow within me, a hope that one day I would become a writer. That maybe in the future, on this same street, a young college student would thumb through my books and feel her world open up in unexpected ways.
Chitra Divakaruni’s latest novel is a three-generational mother-daughter story, Before We Visit the Goddess
