March 4, 2014 Calcutta: a jewel in the crown of British India Krishna Dutta's "Calcutta - A Cultural and Literary history", with a foreword by Anita Desai, gives us a kaleidoscopic view of the city with its multiple paradoxes, and a personal insight into its unique history in a moving manner. Colonial life Krishna Dutta's narration in nine chapters takes us through a journey of colonial life, educational and social reforms, literary peaks, political upheavals against the British, cultural empowerment and political history since independence to the fall of the Left in 2011. Among the many highlights of this book is the vivid description of Black Hole of Calcutta (a prelude to the Battle of Plassey) in which the then Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daula captured Fort William and confined 146 Britishers in a single window room measuring 14 feet by 18 feet on the night of June 20, 1756 from which only 23 came out alive. (snip) http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-bookreview/calcutta-a-jewel-in-the-crown-of-british-india/article5748216.ece ---- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar