Kolkata Kaleidoscope

Rather than make monetary gains, Alka Jalan has chosen to use her sprawling bungalow to promote art and culture. MARWAR talks to the spirited lady, now nearly 70, who has given Kolkata one of its largest upcoming performing art and multidisciplinary cultural venues that is better known as Alka Jalan Foundation.

- Supriya Newar

About three years ago, being the sole heir, Alka Jalan inherited a heritage bungalow in the posh Ballygunje area of South Kolkata, bequeathed to her by her parents. She had lost her ailing mother earlier, and in 2014, she also lost her father, Sitaram Daga, who had posted a very successful innings as a tea man and had lived till the ripe old age of 91.

Given its location and ampleness, Alka started receiving handsome offers for the property almost immediately. But she was sure she didn’t want to sell the house she had grown up in, no matter how lucrative the offer. She was sure she wanted to retain it as it was and do something worthwhile with it. Suggestions started trickling in. Her friends and family suggested that she turn it into a school, or a hospital, or even an old age home.

Culturally inclined

“Somehow I wasn’t convinced,” says Alka Jalan, who now is nearly 70, over a cup of tea at her plentiful lawns, where we met on a lovely winter afternoon. “Instead of all that, I wanted the place to be a creative hub, a centre for performances, and most of all, a place that would exude spirituality.”

But the lady did not have a plan. Quite candidly, she admits that she had not ventured into anything similar earlier. So instead of arriving at a concrete blueprint by herself, she started sharing her core idea with her family, friends and associates and hearing out their ideas as well. “A starting point for me was that there was a trust that had been set up in 1982 by my parents, called Alka Jalan Foundation, under whose aegis, my parents had carried out some charity work. I was quite clear that going forward, I would too. I was not expecting monetary gains but wanted the trust to blossom and do good work in the cultural and philanthropic space,” she says.

An auspicious start