Days and Nights in CalcuttaThis is a last candid look at India, written before the new censorship laws, and told from two very different points of view. When Clark Blaise and his Bengali wife, Bharati Mukherjee, decide to spend a year with her family, he comes as a Westerner, the stranger in a strange land, the son-in-law trying to adjust to a big Indian family and to a tradition-laden society with unfamiliar rules and patterns. After fourteen years abroad, Bharati returns as a "liberated" modern woman partly to test her memories of childhood's wonder and promise, but also to examine the woman she might have been has she stayed in India. Plunging with the Blaises into the mainstream Calcutta life, the reader experiences the constrasting Western and native cultures that are at its core, high society side by side with the ancient unchanged spectacle of raw endurance. Through the keen perceptions of these gifted writers we discover the currents underlying various events -- the gala film opening, the luncheons with "Number One" executives, the quiet mornings packaging medicine for Mother Teresa's lepers within the walled villas of old school friends--all flow together to yield a greater understanding of a culture, two people, and a marriage--dust jacket flap. |
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American Anjali Ashani Sanket asked aunt Babloo Ballygunge Bart BASF beggars Bengali Bernie Bharati Blaise Bombay bride British Calcutta Chembur chhoto-mamu Clark Clark Blaise cooking cousins crowd culture cutta daughter dhoti Dodoo door drive English factory father film flat floor friends front girl Gol Park gold Hindi Hindu Hinduism husband India Jaya jethoo joint family knew look Loreto House mamabari marriage married Marwari middle-class mission Mommy-di monsoon Montreal morning mother movie Mukherjee Nariman Point Naxals never NIGHTS IN CALCUTTA parents Park Raj Kapoor Rajan Ramakrishna Mission Ranu rickshaw ritual road rupees saab sari Satyajit Ray seemed servant Southern Avenue stay story street Tagore talk taxi tell thing thought tion told turned Veena Vijay village walk wanted wedding week West Western wife woman women writing young