A very good friend of ours, Jules (originally Ian met
through insurance connections but now a fellow golfer) was born in Kolkata and
lived here and at boarding school in Darjeeling until he moved to England in
the 1960s. I can’t remember the whole
story but for some reason the Indian Government have refused to grant Jules a
visa so his plans to revisit a few years ago have been thwarted. So, knowing we had a “spare” day we asked him
if there was anything he’d like us to look up and we spent a really interesting
couple of hours finding the two old mansion buildings where he used to
live. Karnani Mansions, where Jules was born, is rather dilapidated now
and the park where he used to play is boarded up but we wandered around and
took some photos, much to the fascination of the locals.
He’s actual apartment was on the second floor above the
Mocambo Restaurant which amazingly is still open.
After that he moved to the beautiful Art Deco Esplanade Mansions opposite the
Governor’s House; this building still looks amazing from the outside.
Being a busy, working city there wasn’t a huge amount to
photograph apart from people going about their daily business and as we were
two of the very few white faces around I didn’t want to draw attention to
us. Maybe tomorrow when we’re with the
guide I’ll get my nerve back. I did
manage to sneak a quick shot of this family, having a wash in what looked like
an overgrown park
Feeling tired after our street roaming we opted for a taxi back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours sitting by the pool (I went in very briefly but it was jolly cold!)
