Seamus Murphy: evaluation

Transcript context

…It feels run down, which maybe is part of the charm, but it becomes a problem over time. It’s deindustrializing. A writer I know, who lives there, was saying that the property development is all a scam in a way. You were talking about noir. I did a project on the Art Deco homes in Kolkata. They’re wonderful. They were usually people from East Bengal, middle-class people, I suppose, fleeing partition and the war in ’71. They came to Kolkata, and they built their houses, and they loved Art Deco. They loved the modernism of Art Deco. Each house is different. They are now being torn down to make way for flats, apartments, five-story, three-story even. The point is it’s flats, whereas these buildings would’ve housed a very extended family, maybe 20 people living in it. Now they knock these down. The reason is because the people living in Kolkata— if it’s a family, probably half the family are in Dubai. Other people are in New York or London or Delhi or Bombay, and there’s one person left, or two people left. The property developers are knocking on the door, saying, “Hey, listen, we’ll give you this much money.” They probably want to stay, but the other people living outside India want to cash in. They don’t want to go back to the city. It’s not the future for them. In some ways, you could say it is slightly a dying city, but there is stuff going on. There’s a very thriving art scene. You do see shops opening all the time. There’re new restaurants. I don’t know how it all works. They’re not very happy with Modi. They’re unusual in that. They’re a very diverse city, and I think they pride themselves in that, which isn’t really the Modi message. You’re right, it’s not part of the thrusting new India, and that is what its charm is, for an outsider, anyway, and for people living there. I know. Where else do you want to live?…

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