The music is fading: Anjan Dutt

Let���s meet in front of music world. that���s been the refrain for park street regulars ��� whether it���s a long-planned get-together, a dinner date, an afternoon stroll... come sunday, that rendezvous line will be extinct. and you���ll be left with memories, a little less musical Every city has its own characteristics. It shapes the minds of the people who live there. If the hawkers are abolished from Bangkok, then it would turn into a hot, humid, bad copy of any US downtown. If neon signs are abolished in New York, then it would become Gotham City. Similarly Kolkata. Certain landmarks represent its culture, its heritage, its mentality. We all know that single screens don���t work anymore. But Lighthouse cinema was not just a cinema, it was a landmark that represented a certain laid-back feudal way of celebrating the big screen. I am sure that Mr Mantosh tried his best to keep it going with restaurants and pubs thrown in it. But he had to succumb. I remember sitting on the steps of Lighthouse cinema and crying till late because a part of my growing up was gone. Similarly if Flurys or Oxford Bookstore is turned into a multi-cuisine restaurant someday, Kolkata will again lose out on its character. I know that the management of Music World has its long list of reasons for shutting down. But to Kolkata, Music World was not just a music store. It represented a certain characteristic of the people of Kolkata who valued physical copies of CDs, books, paintings, movies, newspapers, magazines in a world that is fast turning virtual. Losing this structure where one could laze around, touch, feel the jackets of CDs and DVDs proves once again that Kolkata is losing its character. I am 59 now and cry more easily these days. But I decided to hold back my tears and write this time.If there is anyone to blame, it is us who do not care for our characteristics anymore. I know very well that music or home video ���business��� will turn totally digital/virtual soon. The PC and social network has made sure of that. But folks, we also know that the word ���business��� may turn obsolete because the concept of paying and downloading is not practised by us. Music and DVD pirates are not those footpath hawkers who sell cheap, pirated copies near Gariahat. The pirates are us who sit daily on our PC or laptop and download any and everything without caring two hoots about paying for it. It���s us who pay for branded shoes and T-shirts in a fancy shopping mall, but will freely download a brand like Jimi Hendrix or Azghar Faradhi. It���s we Kolkatans who once valued cultural icons, celebrated writers, musicians, artistes from all over the world and went out of our way to buy them before other cities in this country did. We, the so-called culturally aware Kolkatans, are losing our character. I know many of you out there will have your arguments about changing technology, but remember that all over the world archives are being created to preserve the past. Film prints are being restored and vinyl reproduced to preserve the past. It���s not nostalgia guys, it���s anthropology. To me even a bar like Olympia is of anthropological value, because of the sheer fact that it���s just not a bar but a bar with cultural history attached. Music World was that kind of a historic place for people to indulge in physical sales in a digital world. Not just a shop. It was a space for people to indulge in a past habit. Like the Chinese family owned Eau Chew restaurant above the gas station on Mission Row. It���s not just another Chinese restaurant. You may well not find any difference between Mainland China and Jimmy���s Kitchen because both serve Chinese food and one is more fancy and plush. It���s history guys, like Nizam��� A music-cum-toy-cum-books and stationary store is not a ���music store���. Virgin Music and DVD store on Times Square is of touristic value for many all over the world. So is BB King Blues Club And Grill not just any bar. There are millions like me who would make it a point to visit those places and not the Statue Of Liberty, when in New York. Imagine Venice without a San Marco Square or London without Leicester Square���To any property developer it���s a waste of space. Now imagine Park Street without Flurys, Olympia, Oxford Bookstore and Music World.We, Kolkata intellectuals, need any political excuse to hold a protest rally. We need violent rapes to come out on the streets. We need untimely deaths of creative artistes to gather massive processions but don���t throng to watch his or her work anymore. How many of us lamented the brutal political attack on the historic Glenary���s restaurant in Darjeeling? How many of us lit a candle when Tiger or Lighthouse cinema became cheap garment stores? And why do specialists go around the world to give a ���Lonely Planet��� label to Broadway Hotel on Mission Row? Let us question ourselves. Because the fast and unplanned changing of our landscape has changed our psyche. We go to Someplace Else to drink and chat and not to listen to live music. We treat is like Tantra or any other disc. Because very few of us actually care for the difference between, say, Amyt Dutta or Sumit Ramachandran (Both are brilliant but different). There are thousands of NRI Bongs who come during their winter holidays and picking up music CDs and DVDs was a must from Music World. There are others who would lose out on buying an original James Dean or Kubrick collection���. That���s just a handful like me who would light a candle in their hearts perhaps. But folks in Istanbul will rage a civil war against their government when it comes to breaking down the Taksim Gezi Park. My intention was not to start a debate but question our Kolkata characteristic. Are we actually losing out on what made us different? Change is inevitable and a must. I myself am trying to desperately change my nature and style of work and rethinking at 59. But at the cost of what? Despite what any of you say about Ganesh Talkies, I would go out of my way to celebrate the old para culture and friendliness of North Kolkata that still exists.-Anjan Dutt