I saw my growing up going up in flames

Stephen Court as it was on March 22, 2010 and as it was on March 23, 2010 when the fire spread. Pic Coutesey: Arin Paul

Abhijit da of India Today was keeping his followers updated on Twitter. The television screen was setting the Ananda Bazar newsroom on fire, And I was watching helplessly as a piece of me was being blown apart, consumed, shredded, charred, in front of my eyes.

Stephen Court, on Park Street was burning. 40 fire engines had to be deployed. 16 dead at the time of posting. 40 missing. Many injured. And God only knows how many, who managed to escape or get rescued, traumatised... for life.

Kunal-da of The Telegraph had seen the New Market fire. He had been drinking at the Kolkata Press Club, when the Firpo's Market went up in flames. Kunal-da used to work for The Statesman in those days. During those days-- the good old days-- when print journos were not that challenged, and news channels were a concept that sounded confined to Orwellian novels, Statesman veterans used to virtually conduct their night duties from the Press Club, just across the road. Pages used to be coordinaed over snacks and late night stories edited over tipsy glasses of whiskey or rum. But the paper would show none of the hangover the next morning.

And on such days, it was the duty of the telephone operator to keep a tab on 'stories'. So one day, the operator calls up Kunalda at the Press Club, and informs him that there's a fire at Burrabazar. The obvious question to this was 'How many engines?'

Ans: Four.

Decision: Not important. A fire that can be doused by four fire tenders is not worthy of a copy.

And here there were forty.

Even Kunal-da was summarily agreeing that Stephen Court's fire was huge, perhaps the biggest in Kolkata after the New Market one.

Yes, for all you know, there will be one less piece of heritage on Park Street very soon. Because chances are, in the name of rebuilding it, all those neo-gothic pillars will fade out, the facade will be used up and chances are one may as well get another glass abomination in return on the happiest stretch in Kolkata.

After all, if there is one stress buster in the city, it is Park Street. It's not about Flury's, Peter Cat, A N John, Olypub or anything. It's just the street. The lights, the sounds, the bustle, the colour, the billboards, the shades that are created as evening descends into late evening and late evening into night-- that's what makes up Park Street.

And Stephen Court was part of it. Not that one ever noticed it, or cared to. But it was under its facade that the iconic Flury's, Peter Cat, Magnolia, A N John-- the first hair salon of Kolkata-- were sheltered. It was as if under its patronage that they florished. Stephen Court was like that old, balding monarch, whom nobody listened to, but without whose existence everybody's place would become wobbly.

I gather that none of these establishments have been affected. Which is good. But the upper two floors of Stephen Court have been reduced to rubble. And people had died, trying to flee the heat, desperately jumping out of the British era fourth floor windows, which would be by today's standards something like six floors tall at least.

Fire engines, according to eyewitness accounts, apparently took two solid hours to reach the place. By the way, the closest fire station is situated less than a kilometere from the . And all this while the minister in charge of the fire fighting department in the state, was untraceable by journos. It was well past seven in the evening before the fire, which started at about 1:30 in the afternoon could be controlled. By eyewitness accounts, and judging by the enormity of the fire, the firemen had reached only around 3:30. I was personally witness to the rescue operation they carried out after that-- patchy not because of any lack of intent but because of the lack of proper infrastructure-- and then started fighting the flames. And Pratim Chatterjee, the minister in charge of the department comes on air in his own sweet time and says that the engines were late in reaching because of traffic snarls.

People are being burnt, they are jumping to their deaths, and you have the gumption of giving the excuse of traffic snarls, Mr. Chatterjee?

Was it too much for you to pick up the phone and talk to the police commissioner of the city so that he could ensure the smooth passage of your department's vehicles to the spot?

You never forget to inform the respective quarters when you, yourself are on road, to clear the traffic. Then what happened this time around?

You raise a hue and cry and file FIRs against Shah Rukh Khan's company for the super comfort enclosure they have erected at Eden Gardens for IPL. Granted, it's made of wood, it's dangerous and it can catch fire. If you are so worried about that, how could you not be worried about the numerous electric cables that hung all over Stephen Court for all these years? How could you have turned a blind eye to private kitchens of anonymous caterers springing up on the un-ventilated ground floor rooms of the buildings and allowed their hoarding of LPG cylinders by the dozens to ensure smooth running of business? Stephen Court was actually a virtual fireplace all this while!

Or were you busy reading a new script of a film?

It's good that Pratim had been asked to give an explanation for the debacle at the Legistative Assembly. At least he will be forced to make a public statement, if not a full-fledged apology.

But given the ways of Alimuddin Street and the CPI (M) office-bearers in Bengal, that would soon be dusted under the carpet, as long as Pratim manages to be on the right side of the leftist leaders.

And like New Market, Park Street may never get back a part of its face.

That would be the truth even after the Left have left.