Choudhury trained to become a “corporate conquistador” at Princeton and yet he always longed for the city in which he grew up: Calcutta. His book is a love letter to the city that many young Indians leave for more successful ones such as Mumbai or Delhi.
He admits it’s a place that “grinds you down”. Mark Twain said its weather “was enough to make a brass doorknob mushy”. Built between a river and a swamp, during the monsoon it’s often flooded and in the dry winter the air is so polluted it’s like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
For westerners, it became the epitome of an urban hell, a city of squalor and death. And yet Choudhury’s memorable, evocative book reveals its rich culture, offering a wonderfully vivid and personal account of life in this teeming and troubled city, from adda (the “sweet Bengali pastime of aimless digressive conversation”) and its addictive street food, to the bibliophile delights of College Street, “not just a street but a labyrinth made of books”.
• The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta is published by Bloomsbury. To order a copy for £7.64 (RRP £8.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
