Report : Kalighat Shootout - 08.06.08

Location:Kalighat Temple and Surrounding Area
Date:08:06:08

Members Present
1.Abhijit
2.Krishnendu
3.Somak da
4.Suman
5.Sudip
6.Vivek

TAG:KWS080608KALIGHAT
Its been 2 weeks for me that I was not in the shootout for various reasons. And I was eagerly waiting for this weedend shoot.

This time we decided to visit Kalighat, famous for Goddess Kali. Though photographing is banned within the premises of the temple, photography is possible in the surrounding. This place, Kalighat is also famous for a so-called wrong reason. Well, you will find prostitutes dens around this locality. Our objectives were not to touch this section, to shoot around the temple, mainly street photography. Since this place is a bit risky, fearing the interferences of the pimps and agents, we were actually looking for a local link.

Thanks to Indira, wife of Sudip, who helped us in this matter. She, through her professional contacts, know Mr Prabir Banerjee who happens to be one of the trusty of the temple. With her help, we approached the concern person and things were so easy for us to shoot.

As planned we gathered in front of the Kalighat Police Station at 7AM. The team was Sudip, Somak, Krishnendu, Suman, Vivek and me. This is the first time, in my knowledge, Anirban, was not there in the KWS shootout. Right now Anirban is in Mumbai. And KWS is missing him badly.

We first surveyed the place, had breakfast and then approached to Mr Banerjee. Mr Banerjee welcomed us with open arms. Took us to the roof from where we found the temple shoots will be difficult due to the Sun. Next he took us to a building very next to the temple and from there we found the temple in a clear view. Well, due to restrictions, we are not able to shoot inside the temple but enough shoots taken of the temple. We got introduced to some other people of the locality and all were quite happy to see us taking photographs. What we feared, turned out to be wrong. These people proves to be quite friendly, though not very sure if it is due to Mr Banerjee.

After the first phase of the shootout is over, Mr Banerjee took us to his house once more and treated us with Kochuris, cold drinks & Rossogollas. He also provided us with some facts in an around the temple. As per him some 2000+ families are surviving due to this temple. Like the flower vendors, the sweet vendors, the tea vendors etc … and then there are very negative reports about the location specially due to the pandas. Well, at one point of time these pandas were really a pain and hell lots of complain used to poured in to the police regarding them. Now things have changed a lot. And we found it to be true. Pandas no more force people to do pujas against hefty money.

After completing with our fabulous breakfast, we thanked Mr Banerjee and proceed for Adi Ganga. This, as it is said, happens to be the actual old Ganga. The water is filthy and smelling hell out of it. Its was getting difficult for us to stand it. To our surprise we found people are bathing in that dirty water. I had never seen water so black till date. I wonder how people use that water. That place can be tagged as the worst place in Calcutta, and I wonder if any one does anything to make Adi Ganga clean. We left this place within 15 mins.

After this Somak, Sudip, Suman & Krishnendu went for Dhobi ghat while me and Vivek retired for the day. I request either of the 4 musketeers to add in the report what they did in Dhobi Ghat.

The credit for experience of Kalighat completely goes to Indira, who had helped us a lot to gain knowledge. We from KWS thank her for such a great effort. THANKS INDIRA.

Members are been requested to upload their shots tagged as KWS080608KALIGHAT in Flickr and Orkut.