‘Calcutta is remarkable! It is a world where everything except a remedy for death is available. Every task is easy for its talented people, its market has an abundance of everything except the commodity of good fortune.’ – Mirza Ghalib

Those who lived in Calcutta during the 1960s–1980s—before it became the Kolkata of malls and neons and flyovers—swear by the ‘city enchantress’, its ambience and ethos. Calcutta Jhalmuri is Probal J. Bhattacharyya’s ode to a bygone era. In evocative prose, these stories evoke the sounds and sights of a city now irrevocably lost in the sands of time. The myriad characters offer an insight into the whole social and economic spectrum—from a freedom fighter to a college playboy, a nautch girl, and a battered housewife—as they leap out of the pages to paint an irresistible portrait of an extraordinary city. Wistful and elegiac, this is one unforgettable ride down memory lane.