Kolkata Literary Meet 2023
‘Future Perfect Museums’ panel discussion with (l-r) Professor Vidya Dehejia, Professor Jayanta Sengupta and Rudra Chatterjee
Photograph © Lanto Synge 2023
Following the visit to the Jaipur Lit Fest we made our way eastwards to the similar though smaller event in Calcutta – the Kolkata Literary Meet. Again, I spoke about my new book India: a History in Objects and signed copies.
With Professor Jayanta Sengupta
Photograph © Lanto Synge 2023
Calcutta has many happy memories for me. Not least of these was when, before I retired from the British Museum, I would visit Calcutta to acquire the work of 20th century and contemporary artists for the collection. One of the foremost venues for this was the gallery of Supriya Banerjee, Galerie 88 in Shakespeare Sarani. It was thus a wonderful and happy surprise to find that the highly efficient organiser of the Kolkata Literary Meet was none other than the daughter-in-law of Supriya, Malavika Banerjee.
All the delegates were very comfortably housed in the Bengal Taj, run by the Tata group. Meanwhile, the events of the Meet itself were held in tented enclosures on the lawns of the Victoria Memorial Hall at the south end of the Maidan, the great open space at the centre of the city, the western edges of which are lapped by the waters of the river Hugli.
It was a pleasure to speak about my book with the Director of the VMH, my friend, the Cambridge historian Professor Jayanta Sengupta. These discussions with a museum director who, in his own institution here in Calcutta told history through objects, just as I did in my book, made our conversation a pleasure; we were singing from the same hymn-sheet. There were again sales and signings of my book.
Other than this discussion with Professor Sengupta, I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel discussion, chaired by Rudra Chatterjee, entitled ‘Future Perfect Museums’. My fellow panel-members were Professor Vidya Dehejia from Columbia, a friend from long ago, and again Professor Jayanta Sengupta.
Elsewhere in this festival, it was impressive to note the commitment to Bengali, as well as English book titles and discussions. The appetite for books, for reading and for argument (the latter for which Bengalis are famous!) is undimmed on the banks of the Hugli.
Watch my conversation with Professor Jayanta Sengupta at Kolkata Literary Meet