September 18, 1982 Calcutta Diary A M CYNICS win out over others amid the outcrop of flora and fauna in this neighbourhood, which is why musings such as what follow one can hear ailed all the while: this wretched dty, this hell hole, Calcutta, comes alive only when a death takes place; it is only death which invests it with a proper ambience; so it waits, with unbated breath, for the next chance occurrence of a death; death adds lustre to ths city's left-over dignity.