At a time when every armchair heritage activist cries “blue murder” whenever an alleged ancient building is torn down in Kolkata, few have even heard of P.T. Nair. Way back in the 1970s, he was one of the first urban historians to make those who live in this relatively young city conscious of its eventful past, and of its legacy.
Parameswaran Thankappan Nair does not even have the requisite academic qualifications — he is only a bachelor of arts and a non-practising lawyer. Yet in the 2015 book Calcutta: The Stormy Decades,