Antara's first stint in journalism, the Kolkata reporting office, was located at the Central Business District of the city.
Before India's independence, it was referred to as 'Dalhousie', probably after Lord Dalhousie.
After independence from British rule, colonial legacies were mostly discarded, names of neighbourhoods and streets/roads were often changed.
What was Dalhousie became known after three Bengali revolutionaries, they had once fought against British officials within the Secretariat located in that area, called Writers' Building.
These Bengali revolutionaries were called Benoy-Badal-Dinesh, hence the business district came to be known after them, called BBD Bagh.
The stances of Benoy-Badal-Dinesh on the legit lease was never discussed.
Of course, if you were an NRI and close to Indian royals' interest groups, you might have access to what Benoy-Badal-Dinesh actually wanted of the British officials.
Antara remembered visiting Kolkata in December 1987, waiting with her mother and sibling outside the Writers' Building as Ajit got accommodation reserved, till she felt tired and Anjali propped her up on the railing on the pavement.
"Look, there's the statue of Benoy-Badal-Dinesh, look at all those trees next to it, batabi-lebu (a kind of citrus fruit), useful for Durga Pujo." It was warm for a winter's day, earlier at Howrah Station, Antara had got rid of the black leggings she wore beneath her frock, "No, my legs wouldn't be cold," she had told Anjali.
Later, when she was a news reporter, working at the BBD Bagh area of Kolkata, she found that except those employed at Dalhousie's offices, no other Kolkatan ever willingly visited the BBD Bagh area.
The newsrooms and reporting offices didn't close during Durga Pujo and that was when BBD Bagh turned into a delightful place, the Durga Pujos of 2006 and 2007. Other offices would be shut, there was not a hint of Durga Pujo in the BBD Bagh area, the few buses running would be almost empty, the business district, largely shuttered, but to oneself.
If Antara had the Central Business District to herself (though shuttered), why couldn't the allusions bring it back to life?
Why did the British Govt's high officials have to enact pandemic violations, in that ultimate show of loyalty to Beijing, and then disappear into the night?
The reason was known to most of the blog readers.
During their hiding days in Amsterdam, Anne Frank had to betray most of the intelligence services used by railroad companies in her diary entries. It was the reason her diary was found intact, confiscated, published, why Anne Frank was remembered at all, so that those Communists who wanted these allusions solved, from any part of the world, could easily access her diary.
If Communists had already solved Anne Frank's diary by the 1970s-80s (why the CPM could risk coming to power in West Bengal of the late 1970s), how did Antara manage to study journalism or get employed, that too in Kolkata's BBD Bagh area?
One possibility was that the BBD Bagh area had come under the influence and control of the tech tycoons, soon after the 9/11 attacks, they had sufficient RMS Titanic information as well.
Compare the names of the San Francisco (California) neighbourhoods and the area around Antara's reporting office in the BBD Bagh area:
i. San Francisco's Financial District. Same as in Kolkata's BBD Bagh area.
ii. San Francisco's Financial District was adjacent to Chinatown. Chinese restaurants, one after the other, where Antara's reporting office was located in Kolkata's BBD Bagh area.
iii. San Francisco's Russian Hill close by. Another prominent Bengali media empire's office, close to Antara's reporting office.
iv. All of it was 'Little Italy' in San Francisco. There were management institutes in the BBD Bagh area, where one of the girls from Antara's Paying Guest used to study during the 9/11 attacks, a Great Game enthusiast, she laughed at Waterloo Street and thereby the Battle of Waterloo (1815), "water from the loo, hopefully not on my head?"
Sometimes, wait before planning those China vacations.
Should we discuss the upcoming China trip of Donald Trump as a hostile gesture?
If the railroad companies had an upper-hand, would they be able to take the Berlusconi-Peshawar-Great Game side on a vacation against their wishes?
Would the Berlusconi side agree to meet people they didn't like?
Let Antara provide an example of how these things worked with the Peshawar crowd.
Antara had gone for a reporting assignment to Netaji Bhavan on Elgin Road in Kolkata in December 2007. By the time the speeches etc were over and Antara was about to leave, Benazir Bhutto had already been killed.
Why didn't Benazir Bhutto go on a vacation or walking trip to the Wilmington, Delaware region, it would remind her of Della and 1984, so many Delaware families had worked on the atom bomb project, or had been suppliers, surely Benazir Bhutto would have found it less aggressive than Beijing?
If it was a game of whether the Communists would end Antara's blog or Antara would keep writing it, the latter would happen, Antara would prevail.
"Too many Russians willing to talk about the Eastern Front (WWII) created Pakistan, don't harass Antara's relatives over it."
Thus, the legit lease had won, we didn't have to force the US officials to travel to Beijing, it was our turn, which destinations would the Berlusconi side want to visit?
What was left to be solved? The Iran War?
During WWII, the Allied side bombed the oil refineries and ball-bearing factories of the Nazis. It led to an interesting incident in the 1980s. During a visit to Purulia, Ajit had forgotten to switch off the ceiling fan when he was leaving, the ball-bearings heated and exploded, the oil and lubricants were all over the ceiling.
Have a chat with the Special Ops people. They ought to know how to end the Iran War.
May 8, 2026.
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