By Rajiv Banerjee
‘TRAM HALT’, it’s a sign painted on the roads in Kolkata. The writing on the road is kind of a writing on the wall for the small moving, gentle mechanical beasts that to me have been symbolic with the city.
There is an interesting article in the Sunday Times of India today on Bengali movies giving trams a pass leaving it for the outsiders to romanticize and be nostalgic about it. As a probashi Bangali, for me, a tram ride is a must, whenever I visit the city, which I must admit, has become infrequent of late.
The gentle pace, the chime and the interiors; if they could talk would have millions of stories and anecdotes to narrate of the city and its inhabitants.
Bengali films have always captured emotions using trams as a metaphor and films made on #Kolkata by directors from outside the city show trams as a part of Kolkata. The purist may call it stereotyping or using cliches to define the city. The city is much more, they say. Agree. But I feel images like trams moving at a languid pace adds to the beauty of the city. In my view, it is a beautiful juxtaposition of the old having its place even as the landscape wears a new attire.
I do fervently hope that trams in Kolkata are not phased out. ‘Tram halt’ should just be a traffic signal to halt and move again, not a permanent halt. The tracks should continue on the road, not get relegated to the depot of memories for people to reminisce in their conversations and adda. I do hope the city fathers have a place for the trams in the master plan of the future. The future I am sure can also hold a beautiful track from the past.
The author is the group head of corporate communications at Piramal Enterprise Ltd.
