Nirmal Chandra Kumar, my father was an antiquarian. He had a large collection of books, maps, prints in his collection, through which he delved throughout the day. His friends, Satyajit Ray, Radha Prasad Gupta, Subho Tagore, Shanti Chowdhury, Vasant Choudhuri and others visited him for a session of ‘adda’ in the evening where books, among other subjects were discussed. Among the visitors was a young gentleman, Parimal Ray.
I had the occasion to meet him and talking about my father he described him as: ‘the patron saint of staying at home and doing nothing’. He said this was coined by, none other than, R P Gupta, who has described him at length in his book ‘Stan Kal Patra’.
Parimal Ray said, unlike other people who had a profession: like film making, acting, public relation, writing; Nirmal Chandra Kumar was famously averse to working. He moved to Taltala from his ancestral home in Mohan Bagan Row around 1940, and became one of Calcutta’s most distinctive personalities, with his defiant arrogance, his devotion to pipe and cigar, his trademark ensemble of white half shirts, dhoti and custom-made Chinese pump shoe.
Paimal Ray told me that his uncle Sisir Mukherjee, a judge at Calcutta High Court lived two houses away from us. Whenever he visited his uncle, he would have a glimpse of my father’s friend who visited his library. He said that occasionally he would peep in to have a glimpse of miles of vellum and leather bound books standing in the shelves. It was Radha Prasad Gupta who introduced him to my father.
Parimal Ray is a rare collector who scoured the streets of Calcutta, fairs, markets and even junkyards in order to collect rare objects and popular ephemera. Parimal Ray’s eclectic collection comprises of popular paintings and prints, matchbox labels, publicity material, cinema posters and booklets and the exceptional item of street hoardings and signboards.