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Mullick Ghat continues to be one of the oldest bathing ghats of Kolkata. This ghat lies where Mahatma Gandhi road intersects the Strand Road right behind Kolkata's largest wholesale flower market.
Trampling through the mud and dirt and squashing multicoloured debris of promiscuous flowers, as one climbs down the brick red staircase one stumbles upon a sepia coloured world very similar to that of Huxley's Benaras and Renoir's River.
As the first rays of the sun kisses the water of the river Hooghly, the Mullick Ghat slowly wakes up from its soft slumber and then as the morning meander towards day, various kind of people start thronging the ghat for varied reasons. Some come for a bath while some consider a dip here to wash away their sins. A favourite with early morning muscle-builders, one corner of this ghaat is converted into an open-air amphitheatre with pehelwaans in their loin cloths wrestling their way to glory. The long matted haired sadhu and his sonorous chanting, a corpulent man, with eyes half closed, enjoying the pleasure of a warm massage amid the entire hustle bustle, and the rituals of birth and death, this ghat sees it all. However, the most amusing sight here is the weird queue in which people sit and brush their teeth.
This, however, is not the original bathing ghat built by the Mullicks of Burrabazar but erected by the British in their name. The silt of the Ganges rendered the old ghats redundant and the British first rebuilt the ghats while making the strand road but with more silting, these new ghats too suffered the same fate and were again rebuilt as the strand bank road came into existence. This is why the maps of 1794, 1820 and 1890 show three different locations for each of these ghats.
Ensconced in the silvery shadow of the cantilever wonder, the Howrah Bridge; this ghat has a special 'Zenana Ghat' (a section exclusively for women) attached to it which is a witness to that era when women of the aristocratic families were brought here in palanquins. The whole carriage was then dipped into the holy river so that the lady of the house was not seen by the proletariat.
Nowadays, this part of the ghat is open to all. Although the filth and stench of this place does not impress too many people, from here the silvery silhouette of the Howrah Bridge along with a pigeon covered sky is absolutely stunning.
Unscathed from the huge waves of urbanisation, time seems to have come to a standstill at this most insignificant bathing ghat of Kolkata. The characters that dwell the place seem to be from a flashback and do not exist in real time or space.
As the effluvia of the day slowly impregnate the morning mist, the activities of this bathing ghat begin to emasculate and by evening, all that remains is the sound of the river gossiping with its banks about the day's scandals.
Trampling through the mud and dirt and squashing multicoloured debris of promiscuous flowers, as one climbs down the brick red staircase one stumbles upon a sepia coloured world very similar to that of Huxley's Benaras and Renoir's River.
As the first rays of the sun kisses the water of the river Hooghly, the Mullick Ghat slowly wakes up from its soft slumber and then as the morning meander towards day, various kind of people start thronging the ghat for varied reasons. Some come for a bath while some consider a dip here to wash away their sins. A favourite with early morning muscle-builders, one corner of this ghaat is converted into an open-air amphitheatre with pehelwaans in their loin cloths wrestling their way to glory. The long matted haired sadhu and his sonorous chanting, a corpulent man, with eyes half closed, enjoying the pleasure of a warm massage amid the entire hustle bustle, and the rituals of birth and death, this ghat sees it all. However, the most amusing sight here is the weird queue in which people sit and brush their teeth.
This, however, is not the original bathing ghat built by the Mullicks of Burrabazar but erected by the British in their name. The silt of the Ganges rendered the old ghats redundant and the British first rebuilt the ghats while making the strand road but with more silting, these new ghats too suffered the same fate and were again rebuilt as the strand bank road came into existence. This is why the maps of 1794, 1820 and 1890 show three different locations for each of these ghats.
Ensconced in the silvery shadow of the cantilever wonder, the Howrah Bridge; this ghat has a special 'Zenana Ghat' (a section exclusively for women) attached to it which is a witness to that era when women of the aristocratic families were brought here in palanquins. The whole carriage was then dipped into the holy river so that the lady of the house was not seen by the proletariat.
Nowadays, this part of the ghat is open to all. Although the filth and stench of this place does not impress too many people, from here the silvery silhouette of the Howrah Bridge along with a pigeon covered sky is absolutely stunning.
Unscathed from the huge waves of urbanisation, time seems to have come to a standstill at this most insignificant bathing ghat of Kolkata. The characters that dwell the place seem to be from a flashback and do not exist in real time or space.
As the effluvia of the day slowly impregnate the morning mist, the activities of this bathing ghat begin to emasculate and by evening, all that remains is the sound of the river gossiping with its banks about the day's scandals.
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