For Debdeep Mustafi, trips with his businessman father to an HMT store in downtown Kolkata remain an enduring childhood memory. His father, says Mustafi, would present his staff with HMT watches on festive occasions every couple of years. The trip would be rounded off by a visit to Bhim Chandra Nag at Bow Bazaar.
“Trips to Bhim Chandra Nag were like a tradition at our place. They still are. I love the shor bhaja and the jolbhora sandesh there,” says Mustafi, a medical biller, who describes himself as a “complete foodie”. And, for some reason, Mustafi, 33, says, he always remembered the massive wall clock at the iconic Kolkata sweet shop. “You just can’t miss it. It’s placed to the right of the cashier and its mahogany wood hasn’t lost any of its lustre.”
Bhim Chandra Nag is a Kolkata culinary institution and, along with of Trinca’s, Shiraz, and Nobin Chandra Das, forms part of a Park Street culinary heritage trail that was announced by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage late last year.
Set up in 1826 by Paran Chandra Nag and named after his son, the sweet shop, which counted among its patrons the religious reformer Ramakrishna Paramhans, was already popular by the time Charles Canning became the first viceroy of India in 1858. The confectioner’s reputation was burnished the same year when Bhim Nag, it is said, created a deep fried sweet dipped in sugar syrup in honour of Lady Charlotte Canning. The sweet soon began to be referred to as ‘ledikeni’, a corruption of the viceroy’s wife’s name, and is now part of the constellation of stellar sweets from Bengal.
1858 was also the year in which silversmiths, jewellers, and clockmakers Robert Cooke and Charles Kelvey set up shop in Kolkata. (While Cooke & Kelvey stopped making clocks in the early 20th century, the firm, now headquartered at New Delhi, is still much sought after for its silverware. Cooke & Kelvey was also the country’s first official Rolex retailer.)
The buzz surrounding Bhim Nag made Cooke visit the confectioner, and the latter, an astute marketer, decided that the busy shop required a clock and that it would be a gift from him. Since none of the workers at the shop could read English or were familiar with Arabic numerals, Cooke instructed his staff in England to hand-paint the indices as words in Bengali. “So, you had this entirely customised clock made for Bhim Nag. And it runs on a fusee movement that is on another level compared to lesser clocks,” says Mustafi, whose eclectic watch collection, besides HMTs, consists of an Omega Seamaster and a Seiko Chariot, among others.
In early 2020, when Mustafi and his friends Aritra Mukherjee and Kshitij Kumar decided to embark on a watch project of their own, they didn’t have to look too far for inspiration.
“We first floated the idea of a Kolkata tribute watch on watch groups and found that the idea resonated with enthusiasts,” says Mustafi.
Project Ledikeni took wing a few months before Covid-19 turned the world upside down and it took a year before the first batch of 100 watches, which were put together in Mumbai by watchmaker Ali Bagasrawala, was ready.
The Ledikeni, priced between Rs 3,400 and Rs 4,400, is a fairly basic watch. To keep costs low, Mustafi and Mukherjee use refurbished a HMT movement (0231) and the watch is available in either a steel or black PVD case.
The dial, available in either white or cream, is of course, a close approximation of the face of the Bhim Nag wall clock.
The trio, which has just finished despatching the second batch of watches, is surprised by the response to their passion project. “We are in it because we love watches and Kolkata. We thought it would be probably get some traction on watch groups, but we’ve been getting orders from abroad as well,” says Mukherjee.
While 60 percent of their patrons are Bengalis, the rest are simply watch lovers from as far as Texas and Australia. Mustafi and Mukherjee haven’t firmed up plans for a third batch of watches, but those curious about the Ledikeni would do well to follow the project on Facebook.
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