Call it a city of palaces, a dying city or city of joy. Kolkata remains a mystery to us and a must-visit destination for tourists. Walk into any leading bookstore and you will come across a monumental book, literally and figuratively speaking, with a silver jacket. Brian Paul Bach’s book Calcutta's Edifice: Buildings of a Great City explores not only a few important streets and enters buildings of historic importance but is also a story of our lives, activities and times.

“It is universally known that India’s architecture is as rich as its other cultural offerings. But beyond the Taj, Khajuraho and Sanchi were other discoveries waiting for me, nearly as profound, and much less known to the outsider. Old pictures of Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus and Metropolitan Corporation do not attract me much. Maybe it’s because I come from the US, a comparatively new country, that I took particular notice of India’s ‘younger’ sites, of which Kolkata is the premier example. I had no idea of the subcontinent’s more recent architectural heritage. In the case of Kolkata, all the conventional exoticism of the East, peddled as a commodity for Western consumption, fortunately goes right out of the window. The city has an independent identity. That includes everything from grandeur to squalidness, and Kolkata’s version of this spectrum made an impact on me somehow.

“Often outsiders notice things that natives take for granted. Perhaps it’s because I’m from a nation where so much architectural heritage has been altered, not always for the better, and new development, in my opinion, usually has little of heritage quality. Subconsciously, I might still be searching for the small town of my childhood! But who cares? The important thing is that Kolkata is Kolkata, and it is vibrant, alive, and indeed, flourishing… After several visits, I found that I wanted to contribute something to the city,” says Bach.

Sourcing material for his book was not easy. He came on long visits in 1982, 1988, 1991 and 1992. He gathered hundreds of photographs during this period. To an average outsider the city’s buildings are simply witness to the past. Tourists often overlook the life in and around these buildings. “I certainly see drama. The buildings and associated structures are settings for the human experience of Kolkata, in all its complexity, its cultural and social development and its history. I also see them as elements of nature, human-made nature, of course, but entities that experience the cycle of specific climate and geological time. In short, I would say that I simply appreciate Kolkata’s version of reality, warts and all. And no one can respond to it passively.”

Even with supporters of conservation of heritage buildings on the rise, many important structures are not maintained properly and some have given way to apartment blocks. Is it the same in Washington state? “I think that despite the apparent differences between them, the city comes up short in preserving itself in a way similar to that which occurs in America. There are the universal reasons of neglect, climate, apathy, greed, litigation, and political maneuvering, but it is a matter of degree. Aggressive developers in America have been known to employ a technique that was championed by New York’s power broker Robert Moses: get the bulldozers in before dawn, and then by the time they are noticed, the damage they inflict can’t be undone. If anything, Kolkata is entering the game of bulldoze-and-develop rather late. As prosperity increases, land value rises. Landowners become more interested in profitable development, often without sensitivity or ethics. I’m not too naive to think that Kolkata will remain as some quaint notion in which its populace enacts a lifestyle deemed fitting by an observer. But, to reiterate my thoughts, I should think that it would be preferable for the city to retain, both consciously and unconsciously, a strong semblance of its current identity rather than to subscribe too thoroughly to a blander global culture.”

Bach believes that in the US there have been instances of urban failure, though in a different form. He considers the effect of Katrina an example of “American lack of broad vision in problem solving”. “It may be an awkward example as far as comparisons are concerned, given the considerable contrasts in culture and geography, but I would use Scandinavian and other European cities as examples to follow when considering preservation or enhancement of essential urban character. Careful integration of sensible modernisation with existing, identifiable structures is an achievable goal. You can see it in Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Tallinn, and Paris. And you can see it in Kolkata on occasion too. Conversely, it’s hard to find in places like Shanghai, or Phoenix, where things are done as if by sledgehammer… Ask the people on Rabindra Sarani or Bipin Behari Ganguly Street what they want. At this point, I don’t think heritage Kolkata is as vulnerable to neglect so much as it is to bad or reckless development, perhaps in the name of ‘improvement’.”

Besides Calcutta's Edifice, his toast to the city, Bach has written The Grand Trunk Road From The Front Seat (Harper Collins, 1993, revised edition 2000). It is a travel memoir capturing the sights and sounds of the road between Howrah and Peshawar via bus, rickshaw, tempo and other wheeled device. While working in the city, Bach couldn’t help fall in love with certain structures, especially Writers' Building. “Its vastly-scaled intricacy, its teeming vitality, its surprising intimacy, its population of thousands (or so it seemed), and its intrinsic mysteries, were completely captivating. It is certainly cinematic, and all such effects are achieved entirely without computer-generated imagery! I am entranced with a certain tiny temple in Shyambazar, as well as the little mosque at the intersection of Free School Street and Kyd Street.”

Son of a retired arts professor and educational filmmaker, Bach has an interest in drawing, writing, photograph and filmmaking. Over the years he took up various jobs including carpentry and building maintenance and worked in show business in two large Seattle theatres. His wife Sandra accompanies him on his travel. As long she rustles up alu bhaji, Bach keeps writing and travelling!

“I recently finished a novel set in, naturally, Kolkata. I’d call it a ‘philosophical-science-fiction-thriller’, if that’s a usable term. In the story, the city is threatened by supernatural forces. Howrah Bridge plays a key role. In this way I utilised the ‘film set’ of Kolkata for my own drama. Right now I’m in the midst of a novel set in the Hollywood of today. It’s a change of pace, but because Bollywood is beyond my ken and Tollywood is long gone, I'll have to stick to my backyard with this one.”