Mudar Patherya woke up one morning at his Kolkata home a few weeks ago with an idea: Why not paint pavements? For the past two years, the communications consultant and heritage enthusiast, along with two friends, Ratnabali Ghosh, a retired teacher at the Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan and Prasanta Sain, a professional artist, had got alpanas—traditional motifs, patterns and symbols drawn with rice flour paste—painted anonymously in houses, five-star hotels and pavements in different parts of the city. “The idea of painting became embedded in my mind,” says Patherya.
He came up with an idea of doing a ‘Walk of Fame’, similar to the Hollywood version. “Initially, the plan was to put the names of revered personalities at the centre of the pavements,” says the 61-year-old. “But, I thought, if somebody walks over a name like Rabindranath Tagore, it will create a huge controversy.” So he decided to put the names on the side of the pavement, near the buildings. The names included, apart from Tagore, contemporary musicians like Suchitra Mitra, Debabrata Biswas, Shreya Ghoshal, Shyamal Mitra, Anjan Dutt, Rupam Islam, Susmit Bose and Usha Uthup. As for the pavement design, Patherya says, “It is like a mosaic.”
Mudar had to get permission from Manisha Bose-Shaw, the municipal councillor of ward 87. When the officer listened to what Mudar had to say, she smiled. “No one has tried anything like this before,” she says. Around eight pavements on Dr Sarat Banerjee Road and Maharaja Nandakumar Road, in the Lake Market area, have been painted. “People were enthralled,” Bose-Shaw says.
Asked why he chose this particular area, Patherya says, “This neighbourhood was gradually developing a cafe culture. I hope that with these colourful pavements, more cafes and boutiques will come up. Residents wanting to sell their
Art Deco two or three-storeyed houses to builders might think twice. The character of the neighbourhood will be protected. Essentially, this was a heritage preservation exercise.”
The heritage enthusiast got as many as 11 sponsors from different walks of life for the initiative. Patherya had earlier set up an NGO called Kolkata Gives, which mobilised nearly Rs 100 million in cash and kind during the pandemic. Asked why he is one of the few educated Indians to have a social sensibility, he says that the middle class has an inside-outside paradox.
“They spend lakhs, even crores to ensure that the inside of their homes look beautiful. But if you ask them to give a Rs 100 donation to clean up the pavements, they will say no. You have to redefine me and mine. You live in the city and the city should live inside you,” he says emphatically.