Thirty-five Feluda fans walked through the streets of Kolkata and stopped at some iconic spots to get their Feluda quotient high.
Feluda – The Nostalgia, a unique tour organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I) in association with Walk Calcutta Walk and Joeeta Basu, started from the Bengal Chamber and ended at south Kolkata’s Tollygunge, covering Garpar, Bishop Lefroy Road, Marble Palace, Indian Museum and Rajani Sen Road.
“All these places have some Feluda associations and are also closely linked with Satyajit Ray, Feluda’s creator,” said Ayon Mandal of Walk Calcutta Walk.
The participants were asked to solve riddles and asked questions on Feluda.
G.M. Kapur, chairperson of the BCC&I heritage committee, and Baishali Dalmia, co-chairperson, the Delhi Counsel of BCC&I, were the ideators of the tour and briefly joined the participants. “It is needless to talk about how Bengalis are passionate about Pradosh Mitra. Just like there is a museum on Sherlock Holmes in London, we can always build one on Feluda in Kolkata,” Kapur said.
Starting in the wee hours of Saturday, the tour continued till the evening. My Kolkata traces the steps …
The Calcutta Gallery
All the participants and members of BCC&I and Walk Calcutta Walk gathered at the Bengal Chamber building in Dalhousie. Though it has no direct relation with Feluda, the building itself is a historic one and has a huge collection of books and old photographs.
Garpar Road
Satyajit Ray was born in and lived at 100 Garpar Road till the age of five. That’s probably why Lalmohan Ganguly aka Jatayu lived there too. The house was built by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and also housed a printing press at one time. “Now the building has transformed into a college, Athenaeum Institution. The college used to be in the next building to the house. But after it was demolished, the college moved here,” said Mandal.
Marble Palace
The house of Raja Rajendra Mullick has been one of the prime attractions of Kolkata for ages. “The palace is made of more than 80 types of Italian marble and has one of the oldest private zoos in the world,” Mandal said. Badshahi Angti has a reference to how Rajendra Mullick built the zoo.
Indian Museum
On the way to Indian Museum, the participants were given a riddle to solve. The short poetry first led the participants to the Mughal Art gallery, where they found the painting of Jahangir hunting deer. From there, the riddle took the participants to the museum’s coin room where they found the coin collection with zodiac signs released by Jahangir. “We are talking about the novel Jahangirer Swarnamudra,” one of the participants shouted in front of the glass case. “Precisely. In the novel, one of the 12 coins was stolen and Feluda came to rescue,” said Mandal with an ear-to-ear smile. After the riddle, a special reception was held at the museum for the team.
Bishop Lefroy Road
The next stop was Satyajit Ray’s home on Bishop Lefroy Road. Ray’s son, Sandip Ray flagged off the vintage car that was recently used in Anik Dutta’s Aparajito. “I am really honoured that such a tour has been organised. At the same time, I was disappointed that I couldn’t be a part of the tour because of some personal reasons. Nevertheless, these initiatives would bring the younger generations closer to Feluda,” Sandip Ray said.
The lunch
Bhooter Raja Dilo Bor, a themed restaurant on Satyajit Ray’s film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, was the perfect lunch stop. Actor-director Abhijit Guha, actor Ayush Das, and Baishali Dalmiya joined the participants.
Rajani Sen Road
The participants walked down Rajani Sen Road to find Feluda’s home at 21 Rajani Sen Road but could only find a house with 21B Rajani Sen Road as its address. “Ray used to live on Lake Temple Road, from where he made films like Sonar Kella. So, no wonder he gave Feluda an address close to home,” Mandal said.