KOLKATA: It was a winter night in 1985.
Reginald John had simply returned dwelling at Pilkhana in Howrah from workplace and was having tea along with his spouse once they heard a knock on their door.
“In these days, Howrah was lower off from Kolkata and Pilkahana was behind past (although merely 3km from Howrah station).
Individuals would flip in early and streets can be abandoned by night,” mentioned John, the executive officer of Seva Sangh Samiti.
On opening the door, John was stunned to see a well-known face smiling at him.
“It was my buddy Dominique Lapierre.
He pushed a guide into my palms, ‘The Metropolis of Pleasure’, which he had based mostly on characters we had met within the congested slums of Pilkahana,” he mentioned.
‘Metropolis of Pleasure’ was later tailored for a movie, directed by Roland Joffe and starring the late Om Puri and Patrick Swayze amongst others.
Om Puri essayed the position of a rickshaw puller, one of many two protagonists within the movie.
A 500m stroll by a serpentine lane, flanked by biryani stalls and rickshaw stands, results in the Seva Sangh Samiti well being centre.
Lapierre would typically assist out right here.
“Dominique used to go to Pilkhana for his work and he was deeply involved by the extent of poverty and lack of even fundamental facilities,” mentioned John.
Most residents of Pilkhana mentioned they by no means met Lapierre however had heard about him and his guide from “their elders”.
“Pilkhana was extra impoverished than it’s now.
A foreigner visiting them and enquiring about their dwelling situations so touched the those who they shared their experiences as fables with their subsequent generations,” mentioned Arshad Hussain (44), a resident of Pilkhana.
Thirty-seven years later, a stroll by the slums provides an impression of transformation within the neighbourhood, however scratch the floor and the veneer falls off.
The slim lanes are simply vast sufficient to permit one particular person to stroll by.
Pilkahna nonetheless doesn’t have a correct faculty and Seva Samiti Sangha stays a very powerful supply of medical care.
“Progress within the space has been restricted to cellphone outlets, biryani stalls and a whole bunch of cycle rickshaws.
Even three and half a long time after Sahab ji (Lapierre) wrote about us, not a lot has modified,” mentioned Maktoob Ali (65), a pan-seller,who by no means met Lapierre however has heard concerning the ‘Metropolis of Pleasure’.
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