its a city with a heart i must say my highschool years in calcutta were very vital it is as if the room for alternative opinions and progressive thinking or thinking that challenges the established conventions is simply no longer available to people so a lot of things that i did here continued with me through my adult life did you have a girlfriend in kolkata perhaps there has always been a strain of intolerance among a certain section in the society it was a period of great restlessness and turbulence the press is by and large intimidated and has been very conforming in its coverage of most issues very obliging to the ruling party what i saw in late 60s early 70s did not encourage me to go to college here i came from mumbai which by that time was very materialist superficial in many ways much more concerned about making and spending money is it a conscious decision what is your take on the ongoing metoo movementmetoo is not only about creepy sexual behaviour your take on todays political vulnerability in the countrypolitical unrest today is very different from that time everybody was political here every kind of idea was expressed mind you the political challenges in the city were also mounting at the same time people were literally enacting badal sircar plays in the sidewalks instead i studied at stephens here is his takevictoria memorial stately when social media has literally trimmed down the grandeur of english language you came up with a diametrically opposing trend that made me far more conscious as a human being esplanade there is not a great deal of popular involvement or support there were demonstrations and strikes every day it is very different from the period i am talking about 1969 to 1972 unfortunately today the government seems to be on the side of those who restrict freedom and calcutta was also a city in which so much going on very few people actually go to the races follow the races my parents were still here that made me far more conscious as a human being but governments the judiciary and the system as a whole including the press were custodians of freedom or constantly fighting to expand the space for our freedom of expression in kolkata people were much more interested in making ideas culture art and cinema the jadavpur university vicechancellor gopal sen was killed the examinations were continuously pushed back but today people are much more distracted by so many other options i was here in kolkata and i used to do assignments write articles race course a very very minorityinterested area and essentially a section of the judiciary seems to represent the only hope i suppose to some degree it is an admission that i come from a different vintage in many ways it epitomises the transformation of kolkata from once elegant colonial city to a bustling teeming overcrowded indian metropolis but i went to