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Kolkata a great city, hasn’t lost its culture, says its barefoot chronicler

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Kolkata: Kolkata still remains a “great city” that hasn’t lost its “heart” or “culture” and among whose people there is “some kind of discipline”, says P. Thankappan Nair, its 86-year-old barefoot chronicler who has left the eastern metropolis after a 63-year-long association with the city.
His legacy will be the 62 books he penned on the city and the 2,000 he purchased over the years and which he has given to the Town Hall library.
Nair has gone back to his roots — Chendamangalam, a small town in Kerala’s Ernakulam district — as his children and grandchildren did not want him and his wife to stay on alone in Kolkata at their age.
“The heart of the city has not changed. Although the city has lost its importance as many companies shifted their operations, but the city has not lost its culture. It still remains a great city,” Nair told IANS while recalling his memories of the city.
“Somehow I like the city. It has got some kind of discipline among its people,” added Nair, who still prefers to call it “Calcutta” though the name was changed to Kolkata in 2001.
His latest book, Gandhiji in Kolkata, would be released at next year’s Kolkata Book Fair and he was not sure whether he would present at the event.
Even in the era of a digitised world, Nair does not use a mobile phone or computer.
Explaining his style of work, he said he would gather information from government records, newspaper clippings and by listening to the local people.
The historian has given all the books that he had purchased for his research to the city’s Town Hall library to make it an “alternative and rich source” of historical documents, beside the National Library.
“I used to go to College Street every day and had purchased almost each and every book written on Calcutta and West Bengal. There are about 1,700 books. In addition, a list of 300 books is being prepared and these would also be deposited to the Town Hall authority. I have chosen the Town Hall as an alternative source of books as there are many books on the city in the National Library,” Nair explained.
“The research work that I am intending to take up will be of a different kind. There is scope of researching in my native village because Chendamangalam is a place where the first printing was started in India by Portugese. I would like to explore more on this,” said Nair, who still remains on the lookout for a new challenge. (IANS)

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