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[edit] A backgrounder

Sudipto Das, July 9, 2023: The Times of India

Some famous residents who stayed in Kolkata- messbari
From: Sudipto Das, July 9, 2023: The Times of India

After more than a century of service, Kolkata’s iconic ‘messbaris’ are on their way out. Starting sometime in the late 19th century, they housed hundreds of working men at a time, including literary giants like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay – creator of Devdas and Parineeta – and Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, author of Pather Panchali. 
Poet and novelist Jibananda Das, Nirad C Chaudhuri (remembered for ‘The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian’), and Byomkesh Bakshi’s creator Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay also lodged in these cheap hostels where men shared rooms and toilets. In fact,

detective Byomkesh Bakshi starts his career in the story ‘Satyanweshi’ from a messbari.

The first half of the 20th century was the messbari’s heyday when these establishments could be seen all over central Kolkata, particularly in and around College Street and Harrison Road (now Mahatma Gandhi Road). But they failed to evolve with time and only a handful, like the 104-year-old Central Calcutta Boarding, Ruby Boarding and Nikko Boarding on Amherst Street, cater to college and university students now.

Price Warriors

Cheap rents have always been the main draw of messbaris, and even today Ruby Boarding charges Rs 70 a day, for which “boarders are provided with basic facilities like a ceiling fan, light, table, chair and a wooden bed in a shared room with common toilet and bath,” says Swapan Mazumder (72), Ruby’s manager for the past 56 years.

It’s a far cry from the modern paying guest (PG) facilities that have sprouted all over the city, offering amenities like AC, Wi-Fi, 24-hour water supply, attached bathroom with geyser, electricity backup, and meals – all for Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 per month.

Atanu Panja, an MSc physics student at Rajabazar Science College, and Tushar Jana share a room at Central Calcutta Boarding. “I found this mess to be the most af- fordable option in Kolkata,” says Panja, whose home is in Kamarpukur in Hooghly district.

While the young men come and go, 76-year-old Manoranjan Das, who works at Calcutta High Court, has not moved out of Presidency Boarding House on MG Road for the past 20 years. Das has a rooftop room at the 106-year-old messbari that was home to Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay between 1919 and 1921, and Jibananda Das from 1932 to 1938.

“I have been staying in this room for the past 20 years at a monthly rent of Rs 1,000,” says Das, who came to Kolkata from Gopiballavpur in Jhargram district. Neglect has left the messbari in poor shape, so much so that “water seeps through the roof”. “To protect the bed, a plastic sheet has been strung over it,” says Das.

The three-storey messbari started by Nandalal Dutta in 1917 is now shut, barring the rooms reserved for Das and another old-timer, Salil Kumar Maity. Yet, there was a time when renowned filmmaker Tapan Sinha and actor Samit Bhanja stayed in it, recounts third-generation owner Sandip Dutta, who runs a pice hotel (budget restaurant) named ‘Mahal’ on the ground floor.

In Books And Movies

Spurned by boarders, some of the messbaris have become favourite locations for film shoots. In 2013, director Dibakar Banerjee lived at Presidency Boarding House for 12 days to recreate its ambience at a Mumbai studio for the shooting of ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’, starring the late Sushant Singh Rajput.

“To avoid the crowd, Sushant came late at night and spent a few hours to get a feel of its ambience before the shooting started,” says Dutta. Bengali films ‘Meghnad Badh Rahasya’, ‘Khawto’ and the Bollywood movie ‘Gunday’ were shot at Central Calcutta Boarding and Ruby Boarding.

The messbaris also have their place in Bengali fiction. Boarding houses featured in stories like ‘Ektala’ by Narayan Gangopadhyay, Rajsekhar Basu’s ‘Birinchi Baba’, and the ‘Ghanada’ series by Premendra Mitra. In the classic Bengali comedy film ‘Sharey Chuattar’ (1953) starring Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, the story unfolds in a fictitious messbari, Annapurna Boarding House.

Marked For Demolition

But now these Kolkata landmarks are being erased. The three-storey Khetra Kuthi messbari at 134, Muktaram Babu Street came up in the early 20th century. It was here that Bengal’s ‘king of humour’, Shibram Chakraborty, lived in a first-floor room overlooking the road until his death in 1980. Kalachand Dey (82), a popular publisher of College Street who was a neighbour and friend of Shibram’s recalls, “He loved rabri from the local sweets shops. ”

The Khetra Kuthi messbari is now set to make way for a multistorey building. Its 24 boarders moved out before Poila Baisakh in midApril, followed by caretaker-cumcook Tapan Maity (71), who left with all his utensils and other belongings. In the early 20th century, novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay had stayed in a boarding house at 27, Badur Bagan Lane that’s also awaiting demolition. Dilapidated now, it was briefly home to two other stalwarts of Bengali literature: Mohit Lal Majumdar and Sajanikanta Das.

Then there’s the boarding house at 41, Surya Sen Street where Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and Nirad C Chaudhuri stayed at different times. Although it’s been bought by a local businessman, Sajal Roychowdhury has stayed on as a tenant. “I stay next to the locked room on the second floor where Bibhutibhushan babu reportedly lived,” says Roychowdhury, who moved in in 1995.

A Study Of Origins

Many boarding houses in College Street and the Bowbazar area were named after the districts from where most of their boarders came. For example, Murshidabad Mess and Bardhaman Mess. There’s even a Khulna Mess in the Bowbazar area, named after Bangladesh’s third largest city.

Dharani Sardar, 50, has kept his room at the Khulna Mess for years. “I have no family. That is why even during the lockdown I used to stay alone here when the other boarders had left. ” Now, 10 boarders occupy the messbari’s three rooms. There are also some tenantturned-owners like Narayan Chandra Saha, 69, a retired school employee originally from Balurghat. Saha came to 63/3A Surya Sen Street – once popular as Krishnanagar Mess – in 1965. When the owner decided to sell the building, some longterm boarders like him offered to buy out their portion, Saha says.

Stories In Stone And Brick

Some of these boarding houses were once a meeting place for freedom fighters. Clandestine meetings and police raids were part of their day, says Tathagata Neogi, doctorate in archaeology, University of Exeter. He has documented Kolkata’s remaining boarding houses with his wife, Chelsea McGill.

“One of the residents told us that Masterda Surya Sen (a freedom fighter who raided the British armoury in Chittagong) once held meetings at 10, Jelia Para Lane in the Bowbazar area,” says Neogi. The boarding house still exists.

In 2018, the couple submitted a list of 26 messbaris to the Heritage Commission. “Tracing and documenting these age-old urban hostels of Kolkata was a monumental task and we listed a total of 26 in the city,” says Neogi. However, a question mark hangs over the buildings’ preservation and possible restoration.