Deepika Padukone's latest ad shoot with Sabyasachi Mukherjee 10:34 The homes of North Calcutta always fascinate me. Through winding lanes and decrepit alleys, one often stumbles upon ‘Paradise lost’. Humble tea stalls, crumbling book binding factories and dingy mustard oil presseries make way for forlorn palaces and music rooms of erstwhile ‘zamindars’. A lesson in sheer hedonistic maximalism. Osler and Baccarat chandeliers, completely engulfed in a shroud of cobwebs occasionally twinkling in the late afternoon sunlight, Devonshire china holding on for dear life on creaky cabinets, jostling for space amidst hand-painted tin and an occasional Lifebuoy soap perched precariously on a silver salver. Works of great European and Bengali masters co-existing in communal harmony with a calendar from a local pharmaceutical company, a withering taxidermy and Fuji-colour rendered black and white family portraits. As a parakeet and a cockatoo chirp in unison from the courtyard, my fingers swipe the dust from the walls to unveil yet another treasure. A hand-painted wallpaper from Paris, finely outlined with 18 carat gold! And one thought one knew the city! Share this Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterPlus on Google+
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