The Bastille Day reception was back in town after a pandemic-enforced break of three years. And what made the occasion at Taj Bengal even more special was the projection on the giant screen of Indian troops marching to Sare Jahan Se Achchha at Champs Elysées as part of the celebrations in Paris in presence of the Indian Prime Minister as guest of honour next to the French President.
Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux were flowing as freely as conversation among the guests when French consul general Didier Talpain, the host, took stage with chief guest Atri Bhattacharya, the state government representative.
Talpain started off by alluding to the ravages of climate change, recalling his encounter with a Sunderbans villager who has lost two homes to bank erosion. “’My third house is still away from the sea but for how long?’ is his constant worry. What about Calcutta?” Talpain wondered aloud, as he mentioned mitigating efforts pledged at COP21, the United Nations conference on climate that Paris had hosted in 2015.
He had more cheering news to share – a French film festival that the consulate general would organise at the beginning of 2024 along with Alliance Francaise du Bengale with “no less than 30 screenings”. The second edition of French classical music soiree is also on the cards at Victoria Memorial with a musician from the Paris Opera.
Victoria Memorial was one of three monuments in the city, along with the Howrah bridge and the Indian Museum, that were lit up in French tricolours. “Go see them after you leave tonight,” Talpain urged the guests.
Before that, there was music with Joe Dessin, Daniel Balavoine, Helmut Fritz and others playing on the sound system; photographs got taken against a backdrop carrying the words Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, the founding ideals of the French Republic, placed next to the stage and, of course, a French supper served by the Taj Bengal kitchen, ending in Crême Brulée, Apple Cinnamon Strudel and Chocolate Praline Gateaux.
On the way out, there was a return gift in the form of financiers and madeleines from Shuktara Cakes.
