I’m crying are you listening?

 

P

ark Street, the centre of the city of joy Kolkata, has been initially known for the Joyous Centre as well as the enjoyment point in nightlives. But in behind of those funny smiles and cheerful shouts there is one place in south Park Street Kolkata, where silent remains forever and ever since 1767 and so on.

I believe that this cemetery should by rights belong in the lofty pantheon of the world's great cemeteries, alongside Pere Lachaise, La Recoleta, and Highgate Cemetery. Upon entering the gate, the visitor is overwhelmed by a vista of towering monuments amid well-tended vegetation. Banyans of different kinds are common here, and garden plants such as crotons and dracaenas are planted lovingly along the pathways among the tombs.

The cemetery was opened on August 25, 1767, when it was an area of relatively high ground amid swampy alluvial plains. Park Street, part of which was once a causeway, was built as an access road to the cemeteries here. The cemetery was closed in the 1830s, but burials with family were permitted in the following couple of decades. A very limited number of honorary burials have taken place since, with a few in the 20th century, and one in the 21st.

Sir William Jones, a great scholar of Indian culture and botany, and an accomplished linguist whose research of the Sanskrit language launched the first serious scholarly inquiries into the origins of the Indo-European language family, is interred here in one of the cemetery's tallest monuments.

The tomb of Elizabeth Barwell, one of the most massive pyramids in the cemetery.

And the grave of the Anglo-Indian poet Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, who helped inspire the Young Bengal Movement in the early 19th century.

Now a days, when time comes in a group of student to set in for a hang out to any heritage place to visit they either chose Victoria Memorial or any kind of Park, but they can’t even hear the silent cry of the great sons of colonial period murmuring in Park Street Cemetery which is wanted to be visited by them.

There used to be a North Park Street Cemetery. Unfortunately, it was razed decades ago for urban expansion. Grave tablets from that cemetery were preserved and mounted in the eastern wall of South Park Street Cemetery.

On top of this, there is a small section where graves from the nearby Scottish Cemetery were moved. The Scottish Cemetery has recently been cleaned up and is under restoration.

As Kolkata is our pride, the part of our pride is as well as our prides! So that, the preservation of our heritage is also our duty! As a part of our society we should do the part of our work by which we can make minimum contribution to protect our heritage like Park Street Cemetery! Why to surrender to the western enjoyment all the time, when we have our own enjoyable history just next step to our door! Standing in this 22^nd century there will be one and only request to our society that is not to forget our own tradition and the place which are carrying on those things as well as not to take the outer cultural practice blindly when our own motherland prides are seeking our attention!

Sandeepan Mukherjee

UG-BMS

3rd Semester