Essay: The Memory-Keeper of Port Blair by Raka Banerjee

In this essay, Raka Banerjee takes us through the history of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands and tells us the story of Memory Studio located there.

It’s the day of Pongal, 15 January 2024, and traffic is slow in the streets of Port Blair. The few shops that are open patiently await the arrival of customers to nudge their attention back from the sunset gradually turning the overcast island skyline into shades of muted slate and grey. Walking uphill from the promenade facing Ross Island (now Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island) towards the clocktower in Aberdeen Bazar, a cursory glance at the lane to my right revealed a shop whose name I had encountered while collecting old settlement photographs for my doctoral research, “Memory Studio”.

In picture: Memory Studio

Over the last 6 years I have walked this route innumerable times and not once did I notice the studio. The studio occupies a small section on the ground floor of an obviously old wood building, as was the architectural norm in these parts. The two other shops on the ground floor were shut. It was apparent from where I was standing across the street that the first floor had long been abandoned. The only sign of people having lived there were the few photographs still hanging on its wooden walls, visible for all due to its missing planks. The studio itself is a fairly well-maintained setup with a small reception desk and photography area in one room, another room for the computer-printer-photocopier system, and a small room at the back for miscellaneous storage purposes.