Day 48 Calcutta

Day 48                        Wednesday 12 October 2011             Calcutta

Having heard from some of the rally people that the flower market close to the Howrah bridge was worthwhile, we got up early & went there by taxi.

Many of the flowers were for the temples so huge mounds of yellow & gold flowers. Some vendors draped them over their shoulders so it looked as if they were wearing flower dresses.

There were other colourful flowers too & lots of neatly arranged herbs.

It was a hive of activity around the market with people buying & selling. A couple of cyclists had about 20 hens tied on the handlebars.

A quick breakfast back at the hotel & then a taxi to the State Archives, armed with our High Commission letter.  The woman in charge then proceeded to write a whole “file” on us for approval by a higher authority. This took over an hour. Finally we were allowed to look at some records.

In January 1820, approval was sought from the government for the Police Office to rent Dr Macwhirter’s house in Lal Bazaar at a rent of 735 rupees a month for 3 years.

In 1823 the Police Office bought Mr Palmer’s house for 200,000 rupees. We wonder whether Dr Macwhirter then rented his house as a Sailors’ Home as he was getting rent from such an establishment subsequently.

We also found the appointment of Dr Macwhirter as Assistant Surgeon at Sarun in December 1809.

There were lots of records on the Mutiny but only for the Bengal Districts.

While we were at the Archives we met Ranabir, an ex-editor of a newspaper & author of a book on Government houses. He was most helpful & suggested avenues for finding out more about properties in Calcutta.

We hope to find the Delhi district mutiny records when we get to Delhi in a few days.