 You bring up lowland. I'd like to ask you a few questions about Bengal if someone's visiting India and they asked me for advice I say you simply absolutely must go to Calcutta If you to the extent you feel the same way, how would you articulate? Why it is people ought to go visit Calcutta because it's one of the most fascinating places on earth that is You know, I mean, it's just a city that is like no other with a You know a life a cultural life a history Utterly its own and hard and beautiful I mean its beauty is not what one you know sort of conventional You know people say oh, well, is it a beautiful city? Well, we'll know. I mean, yes parts of it can be yes, of course but but not in that conventional sense and it's it's it's it's challenging on the whole host of levels and I I of course You know, I don't know it as a tourist, right because my family is from there and I've never Known it in any other way other than When I was very young where my grandparents lived and then my aunts and uncles my cousins and so forth So I have my own relationship to it but You know, it's it's it has it's it's it's like it's like not knowing New York City In the American context, I mean it just it's it's it's just its own thing And it's so strong in its flavor and its power and its energy So, you know It has to be reckoned with, you know, I think and If I think of Indian economists, so two of the best known would be a Marty Sen and Abhijit Banerjee And they're both Bengali, of course Why does it seem that so much of the Indian intelligentsia comes from Calcutta or Bengal? What is it in the water so to speak? I don't know. I mean I Just I know that they're I Mean I hate to make these kind of sweeping general is generalized comments. I don't believe in them, but but but you know It's a city that believes in its poets That that is a Believes in its politics Believes in its believes in humanity in some sense and And and and life is so extreme there In so many ways People are put to the test and and you see life being put to the test Constantly around you and and there's nothing you can really Accept, you know easily or take for granted about yourself or about the universe if you've been there, you know I mean it just it's a jolt To to your consciousness and but it but it but a fundamental one an essential one You know to shake us out of this whatever takes over if you protect yourself Now if I were to take a superficial reading of Indian history Earlier Calcutta is the central capital for the British Empire in India And you could argue that as the British left India since World War two Calcutta has become significantly less central in some ways Delhi and Mumbai Seem to become more important a do you think that's true and be if it is true Do you think that actually in part accounts for why Calcutta has stayed so interesting that loss of centrality or existing on the margins? You even have a nice Italian word for this well, I Think it's it's it's retained a certain character that The other big cities You know have have have a more kind of Western Overlay at this point, you know I mean Calcutta is not far behind and it's changed radically From, you know the city. I knew when I was a young girl and now I think with you know developments globalization, what have you? you know you have Lots of development and all the five-store hotels you could ever want and all the companies and banks and things and Fancy roads and you know all of that stuff that Back in the 70s, you know Calcutta didn't have those things and then the airport was you know distinctly Not glamorous and any all of these things, you know, so you you felt, you know, okay This is a different kind of experience not not designed for the tourists not designed for the important person, you know Shall we say? But and so now so that has already changed and that that distance is smaller Significantly smaller, but in some sense, you know, yes, I think it still retains its own particular flavor and energy Because of this maybe