Close to our office in Prinsep Street, where the Indian Football Association is located, is a rag-and-bones shop. It is heaped with used newspapers and sundry other magazines and miniature mountains of scrap and loose sheets of paper. Inside, bare-bodied men — some ancient, some able-bodied — in lungis weigh paper on scales. Outside the entrance of this tiny single-room establishment is an ancient cast iron contraption. Quite often, it almost disappears under the paper heaps that spill over on the narrow road itself.
Next to the oblong contraption is a plastic pipe emanating from the ground, and water trickles out of it to be collected by the people of this neighbourhood where water is a scarce commodity.
This contraption may look unsightly from afar, but if one scrutinises it one would discover that it is actually a perfect specimen of beautiful industrial design. It is hollow within and the spout is a leonine head, the kind seen all around Calcutta at one time. Many of these have survived. There are some in front of the Accountant General’s office but those are of a more streamlined design.
Above the spout is a monogram and inscribed around it are the words: “Waste not, want not”, an adage whose folk wisdom still has some relevance, particularly in an area where every drop of water is precious. Inscribed at the bottom are the words: CC Workshops Calcutta 1909, presumably the name of the manufacturer.
Although it is not in use any longer, a young man, who lives in the upper floors of the house in which the junk shop is located, says people gathered around the pump for their daily ablutions even 18 years ago. It has dried up since.
The Great Tank in Dalhousie Square was deepened and extended in 1709 for the benefit of the garrison of the old Fort William situated on the spot where the General Post Office stands today. Between 1805 and 1836 large tanks were excavated in Cornwallis Square (Hedua), College Square, Wellington Square and Wellesley Square for public use. In 1820, a small pumping plant was set up at Chandpal Ghat to lift river water into open masonry aqueducts which supplied water in Old Court House Street, Dharamtalla, Chowringhee, Park Street and Chitpur Road.
Most tanks were insanitary but upper-class Hindus depended on Hooghly water drawn at ebb for daily use. Although a steam engine was erected at Chandpal Ghat to draw water from the river, Hindus shunned it as it had been rendered impure by contact with oil, grease and leather. This water was not even used to wash streets in Hindu neighbourhoods. In 1870, a poet wondered how long Hindus would be able to resist the lure of home-delivered water. Subsequently, water did prove to be the great leveller.
Such disused cast iron pumps as the ones near our office and still visible in many areas of the city were once part of what is dubbed “street furniture” today. Period “street furniture” no doubt enhances the charm of a heritage zone like Dalhousie Square. But it is no substitute for the buildings of that era that have survived “development”.
Much is being made of street furniture in Dalhousie Square today. The street lamps and rails in that area have been replaced, apparently, with ones closer in design to the originals. The palings around Victoria Memorial Hall erected of late can be seen in any modern building today. Their design is not coordinated with the Indo-Saracenic style of the monument, and it is not made of cast iron. In all probability it is mild steel, although at one time Howrah was famous for its cast iron products. This focus on street furniture is fine, so long as we do not lose our focus and forget the buildings themselves. The buildings can never be replaced. But often we miss the forest for the trees.
SOUMITRA DAS
Source : http://www.telegraphindia.com/
