Chowringhee

There are plenty of books about India, but Chowringhee stands apart from the crowd for two reasons - it was written in the 1960s, which means that the India portrayed in it is very different from that in later works, even those which imagine earlier decades; and it was written in Bengali, and it's still pretty hard to find books translated from Indian languages into English - most of the books available were written in English.

Chowringhee tells the story of a hotel in the Chowringhee neighbourhood of Calcutta. The Shahjahan is an old colonial hotel, still haunted by the ghost of its founder Mr Simpson, who stalks around at night playing tricks on any staff who have fallen asleep during their shift. In 1960s India, there is an air of show more seediness about the hotel, despite its high-quality service. It's a place for people passing through, for drinking and illicit affairs, with 'daring' cabaret acts in the bar and a businessman who's permanently booked one of the suites and installed a 'hostess' there to look after his clients.

The narrator is Shankar, a new receptionist at the start of the book, who gradually gets to know the stories of both staff and guests, and starts to understand all the things that happen behind the scenes - whether that's the amount of work required to make a banquet go perfectly, or the back-door dealing required to get a major contract signed.

This is a book about a time and a place, where the atmosphere is more important than the plot developments. Individuals - from the poorest of the staff to the most important hotel guests - enter the narrative, tell us their stories, then drift out again. Many of them are very sympathetically drawn, but the things that happen to them can be a bit cartoonish, which weakens the book. However, I very much enjoyed the glimpse into a different era of India. show less

This novel was originally written in 1962, and is one of the most popular novels of 20th century Bengali literature. A movie of the same title was equally popular and well received. Chowringhee was not published in English until 2007, and the translation won two major awards. This edition was published earlier this year in the UK by Atlantic Books.

The setting of this novel is Chowringhee, a neighborhood in Calcutta, in the mid-1950s. The narrator, Shankar, is an ambitious young man who finds himself out of a job with an English barrister, and is barely surviving by selling wastepaper baskets door to door. As he sits in a neighborhood park, pondering his past and fearful of what the future holds for him, a friend of his passes by, who is show more shocked by Shankar's descent into poverty. He tells Shankar that he can get him a job at the Shahjahan Hotel, one of the city's oldest and most venerable hotels, as the hotel manager is one of his clients.

Shankar is immediately befriended by Sata Bose, the hotel's chief receptionist, and after a brief stint as a typist, Shankar becomes Bose-da's main assistant and close confidant. The manager, Marco Polo, takes a liking to him as well, and young Shankar is given more responsibilities by both men. The novel revolves around the guests, entertainers, and frequent visitors of the Shahjahan, but several members of the hotel staff get equal billing in Shankar's narrative. We learn about the seamy underside of the elite of Calcutta, whose greed, shady deals, and shameful behaviors are initially shocking to our naïve young man, but he soons become jaded and disgusted by them. The poverty of working and jobless Calcuttans is vividly portrayed, as those not in the upper echelon are only one stroke of bad luck away from living in the streets or in dilapidated hovels. Love is a central theme, amongst the guests and workers, with often tragic results.

Chowringhee was a very entertaining and light-hearted though tragic read, which richly and effectively portrayed the struggles, joys and frustrations of the different strata of mid-20th century Calcutta. show less

This 1950s luxury hotel story has atmospheric charm and colorful characters, but uneven pacing and underdeveloped arcs (especially Sata Bose's). Despite the Calcutta setting, we don't learn much about the city itself beyond hotel walls. The vintage writing style appeals, but emotional moments fall flat and the ending feels rushed.

Fun Facts about Sankar's Chowringhee:

- Originally written in Bengali in 1962 and translated to English in 2007.
- Became an instant bestseller in India and has been compared to international classics
- Has been adapted into a successful film and play
- Set in Calcutta's (now Kolkata's) famous Chowringhee district in the 1950s
- Written by Mani Sankar Mukherji under the pen name "Sankar"

You will enjoy this book if show more you love:

- Character-driven narratives with diverse personalities
- Stories about hotels and the hospitality industry
- Post-colonial Indian literature
- Tales of urban life and social dynamics
- Books with a strong sense of place and atmosphere
- Ensemble casts of characters whose lives intertwine
- Behind-the-scenes glimpses into hidden worlds show less

This book is full of fascinating characters who all relate so beautifully to one another. Through the daily operations of a hotel, a subtle story emerges.

Despite attempting to read it few times and managing to reach around 40%,I couldn’t associate myself with any character. Slow moving plot with unnecessary importance to history lessons.

4th time maybe is a charm, but hopefully that’s end of Chowringhee for me.

Romesh Gunesekera, en The Guardian, 18 April 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/18/chowringhee-sankar-book-review

Bienvendios a Chowringhee, el cosmopolita barrio del centro de Calcuta. En sus calles se erige la imponente fachada del hotel más antiguo y lujoso de la ciudad, el Shahjahan. Por sus salones y suites transcurren las vidas de ricos huéspedes y humildes trabajadores llenos de sueños y secretos, frustraciones e ilusiones. El carismático Shankar, nuevo miembro del personal del hotel y sagaz observador, nos sirve en bandeja las asombrosas historias de todos estos personajes. Un festín narrativo en cuya mesa el lector podrá saborear una India única, exótica y desconocida, y una época cautivadora, la de mediados del siglo XX.