Fabrice Etienne traces the history of Calcutta and its people. The current consulate general of France to Calcutta shares with Shrabasti Mallik why he prefers to write under the pen name Sébastien Ortiz
People call her the city of joy, but Calcutta (now Christened Kolkata) is just not about passionate football fans, yellow taxis and sweets. She is a city that has the potential to etch itself in the memories of all those who visit her. So it was no surprise when 24 year old Fabric Etienne from France was deputed in Calcutta as a visa officer in 1995, he could not help but fall in love with the place. “There was a charm,” he tells us, “it was so vibrant, even in the most regular activities. like people bargaining over two potatoes or making a crowd in the middle of the street just to listen to news.”
After the completion of his assignment he went back to France but the spirit of the city lingered with him. So much he missed the place that he came back to pen down his experiences in the city. “I had always felt that the races of the British Raj was very evident in the place. The colonial structured houses and in the buildings,” shares the author who writes under his pen name Sébastien Ortiz, showing us a copy of the book titled Ghosts of Calcutta. “My pen name gives me a separate identity which I do not want to merge with the diplomatic side of my career.
It’s a book about the past and present of the Calcutta and the experience of young men who used to reside in the city 10 years ago. In a way, the book is also a record of a protagonist who once again comes back to the city after his first experiences. “It’s more like documenting my experiences of the past and present. And also it’s a story where you have ghost stories of British inhabitants of the city from 18th century up till the Independence. This is the impression you get when you look at the graves of those who were slaughtered. The British characters give a romantic aspect to the book and for me the British or the Scottish tradition ghost is also very romantic and that dimension I still find very present in Calcutta,” smiles Etienne.
Even though Etienne came back to Calcutta after a decade he did not find anything different except for a few high rise buildings. “North Calcutta had not changed. The soul that I found in 1995 was still there in 2005. Indian classical music plays a huge role in my book. The culture, the tradition, the music, the dance — everything was the same. I still feel that Calcutta is same. The old Calcutta is still there in the minds of people and in their soul. And if you will go to the bazaars, you will surely going to experience the old city once again and that is good news. The real Calcutta is still alive,” the author tells us mentioning that the scenario was the same when he was posted in the city in 2012.
We found out that the book was originally written in French and was published in 2009. It was tough for him to think of the judgement of the Kolkata crowd about the book. “I was an outsider writing about their city. It was but natural to have apprehensions and that is why I did not intend for my book to be available in India in the first place. I wrote it to document my feeling for the place and to transfer my experience to my people. Writing on Calcutta for the Bengalis is very tricky,” he explains. But he also tells us that it was difficult for him to find good translators. “We got in touch with many translators but it took us some time to find someone who could understand the depth of the narrative,” he concludes.
photo Sanjeev Kumar