City Of Joy: The man who gave India its City of Joy

French writer Dominique Lapierre, bestselling author of the ode to Kolkata, City of Joy, who also collaborated with Larry Collins to write six books that sold more than 50mn copies in over 30 languages, has died.“At 91, he died of old age,” the author’s wife Dominique Conchon-Lapierre was quoted as saying by the French newspaper Var-Matin on December 4.Lapierre was born to a diplomat father and a journalist mother. The writer, who spoke Bengali fluently and was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2008, founded the City of Joy Foundation in 1981 to rescue children suffering from leprosy from Kolkata’s slums. It was supported by royalties from his many works. medium96021753Four decades on, nothing much has changed in slum that inspired bookIt was a winter evening in 1985. Reginald John had just returned to his home in Pilkhana, Howrah from office and he and his wife were having tea, when they heard a knock on their door.“In those days, Howrah was cut off from Kolkata and Pilkhana was in the back of beyond [though it is merely 3km from Howrah station]. People would turn in early and streets would be deserted by evening,” says John, the administrative officer of Seva Sangh Samiti. On opening the door, John was surprised to see a familiar face smiling at him. “It was my friend, Dominique Lapierre, who was standing at the door. He pushed a book into my hands, The City of Joy, which he had conceptualised, based on characters we had met during our interactions in the slums of Pilkhana,” he said. medium96021829 The samiti, set up by Father Laborde, has been doing charitable services in the slums of Pilkhana.The congested slums of Pilkhana and the impoverished people living there form the backdrop of Lapierre’s City of Joy, which was later adapted for a film, directed by Roland Joffe and starring Om Puri and Patrick Swayze among others. Om Puri essayed the role of a rickshaw-puller, one of the two protagonists in the film.A 500m walk through a serpentine lane, flanked by biryani stalls and rickshaw stands, leads to the Seva Sangh Samiti health centre, which caters healthcare services to the locals. Lapierre would regularly help out Father Laborde. He would often visit the health centre in Pilkhana and the office of Seva Sangh Samiti on Watkins Lane. He would also interact with the residents and help them out as much as possible. “Dominique used to visit Pilkhana for his work and was deeply concerned by the level of poverty and lack of even basic amenities for the residents. The shanties were dark and the place lacked proper drinking water and sanitation facilities. Healthcare facilities were also absent,” said John Meena Das, a teacher at Seva Sangh Samiti had an unforgettable brush with Lapierre. medium96021543“The day City of Joy was released at Sisir Mancha [an auditorium in Kolkata], I was in charge of taking the children from our centre for a dance programme, which was attended by Mother Teresa, Satyajit Ray, actor Moon Moon Sen and then finance minister Ashok Mitra. It became a memory for life,” said Das. Most residents of Pilkhana said they never met Dominique but heard about him and his book from “their elders”.“Pilkhana was more impoverished than it is now. So, a foreigner visiting here and speaking to the residents about their living conditions was so novel and touching for those people that they shared them as fables with their next generations,” said Arshad Hussain (44), a resident of Pilkhana. medium96021670Thirty-seven years later, a walk through the slums gives an impression oftransformation in the neighbourhood but a scratch on the surface makes the veneer fall off, baring the pathetic condition of the locality. The narrow lanes are still wide enough to allow only one person to walk through. Pilkhana still doesn’t have a proper school and Seva Sangh Samiti, where John has been working for the past five decades, remains the most important source of medical care. “The progress in the area has been restricted to cellphone shops, biryani stalls and hundreds of cycle rickshaws. Basic amenities are still lacking. The condition of the road is pathetic and the lanes are so narrow that ambulances and fire engines can’t enter. We still do not have a single proper school or a hospital here. Even three-and-half decades after Sahib ji [Lapierre] wrote about us, not much has changed,” said Maktoob Ali (65), a pan-seller in Pilkhana, who never met Lapierre but heard about the City of Joy, which has Pilkhana as its backdrop.He carried rickshaw bell wherever he went Lapierre had sustained a head injury in August 2012, rendering him comatose, acondition from which he never recovered. Before that, he would visit Kolkata at least once a year and travel across the state to meet children supported by his City of Joy Foundation. “He visited the Pilkhana slum and told me he wanted to write a book on Kolkata,” said Brother Gaston. “I was sceptical and even warned him that he would visit the city a few times like any other foreign journalist, write a book on the misery and filth and disappear,” he recalled.Lapierrie’s City of Joy journey began at this Howrah slum, where he met the people on which the book’s characters were based, including rickshaw-puller Hazari Pal. “I suggested it would be unfair to harp on the misery of the slums, keeping out the joy of living under such tribulations. I am happy he actually did that,” Gaston said. medium96021606Lapierre won the trust of Gaston and other residents when he would wade through waist-deep water in the slums, reaching out to them. He donated a large portion of the book’s royalties back to the city and supported charitable organizations. He would carry arickshawpuller’s bell, wherever he went. “Despite our differences, I have huge respect for him. It was not the financial support, but his genuineness and personal involvement. He often said he owed something to the people of Kolkata and Mother Teresa,” Gaston said.Even after his injury, his wife — also Dominique — visited the city, in 2015. “Every year, our children looked forward to the visit of Dominique-da and Dominique-di. They broke down on hearing the news, but Dominique-di has asked us to look ahead,” said Johnmary Barui, director, Asha Bhavan Centre, Uluberia.Lapierre in 1987 started supporting Southern Health Improvement Samity, working for the Sundarbans, getting dispensaries and four boat hospitals. “He touched upon the lives of thousands of people in the Sundarbans. He sent help after Cyclone Aila,” says SHIS founder Abdul Wohab.