The Charm of Kolkata

Kolkata has plenty to offer for the tourist clamouring for a taste of Asia: there’s lots here that’s very exotic. And for everybody else, the city has its fair share of colonial monuments- Calcutta, after all, was a creation of the British, and Kolkata retains, to this day, more than a mere flavour of the past. The must-see, must-do attractions include the white-marble Victoria Memorial, with its collection of Kolkata memorabilia; the Howrah Bridge (or bridges, really: the old one, with its distinctive suspension towers, and the new one, more contemporary but with not a fraction of the older one’s charm); and the interesting- at least for the younger lot- Science City. If you’re willing to brave the crowds, visit the main Kali Temple in Alipore, dedicated to Kolkata’s guardian deity; and if you’re keen on history, visit the Indian Museum, India’s oldest- and largest- museum. It’s not that great, but it has a fine collection of ancient and medieval Indian sculpture. For shopping, there’s no place quite like New Market; or you can try out the smart stores on Park Street, also a good area for dining out. And yes, do check out Tengra’s Chinatown- great atmosphere, fabulous eateries.

Quick Tips:

When in Kolkata, do as the Calcuttans do: go prepared for crowds. Although much of the city- especially in areas like Park Street or Ballygunge- can be nice and quiet, other parts, such as New Market and Lindsay Street, are usually frightfully crowded. Watch your wallet, too, when you’re around here.

Avoid Kolkata during the monsoons (usually July- September, sometimes till October): the city literally gets flooded, and it can be very unpleasant. The best time to visit Kolkata is around the festival of Durga Puja, usually in late October- all of Kolkata parties at this time, and it’s great fun, although it can get pretty crowded and congested, so watch out for that.

Best Way To Get Around:

My mother grew up in Kolkata, and tells horror stories of going by bus, jostled by fisherwomen with dripping baskets. Things have improved since, and getting into a Kolkata bus isn’t quite so awful. They’re good if you’re on a budget or want a feel of the city; the trams which run in some areas are equally good that way- and quaint, historic- and slow. Best avoid them if you’re rushed.

Other options for getting around include rickshaws, which, unlike in other Indian cities, don’t have bicycles. Here, the rickshaw has two parallel bars, pulled along by the rickshaw-puller, who runs ahead. I’ve always thought of it as pretty inhuman, though I guess it’s a living for the men.

Kolkata’s underground train system, the Metro, is the city’s pride and joy, surprisingly clean, quick and efficient- and it doesn’t cost much, either. There are taxis too- bright yellow, rickety Ambassador cars which careen down roads at breakneck speed, horn blaring and doors rattling all the way. They’re convenient, but meters often don’t work, and it’s best to fix on the fare before you climb in.

Some areas- like Park Street and its environs- are best explored on foot, so consider that option too.

Yes, I know India’s not the place to go eating continental food, but Mocambo happens to be good at churning out succulent Chateaubriands and the most delicious devilled crab ever- and at a fraction of what you’d pay west of the Suez. The restaurant stands on Park Street, and is fairly bland on the outside- but when you get inside, it’s a different story altogether. The decor’s awful- a merry mishmash of everything from orange lampshades and dingy green aquariums which look like they haven’t been cleaned in months, to plastic plants and ugly cockscomb flowers in little brass vases. The waiters, though they look fairly ridiculous in their long coats and fitting trousers, are efficient and unobtrusive, and the restaurant itself is a quiet and relaxed place.

Mocambo is best known for the great continental grub it produces, but it has a good Indian menu too- I’ve been told the vegetarian seekh kababs, the tandoori rotis (Indian breads) and the minced meat with peas is particularly good. We, however, opted for Western fare- devilled crab, chicken Orientale and fish Diane (stuffed with prawns)- and all of it matched expectations, although the chocolate soufflé we had for dessert was too heavy and too redolent of almond essence.

On the whole, (barring the soufflé), a good meal, very satisfying (and I mean literally- portion sizes are huge)- and the best thing was the bill: it came to only about US$7 per person. A good place to come if you’ve got tired of Bengali food, and pretty good for North Indian Mughlai-style food as well. The restaurant has a nifty bar too, so you can down some cocktails or whatever before your meal.

The first Chinese settler in Calcutta, Yong Atchew, arrived around 1780, and was followed, over the next two centuries, by more of his fellow-countrymen, who established Calcutta’s original Chinatown, around Bentinck Street and Phears Lane. It’s now been replaced by the `New Chinatown’, in Tengra- and it’s here that you’ll find some splendid Chinese grub. It’s very much part of Kolkata’s culture, and the ambience is a delicious combination of China and Bengal. Although there are a lot of Chinese restaurants around, Kim Ling’s a personal favourite.

Kim Ling looks fairly inconspicuous on the outside; look sharp, or may just miss it. The restaurant’s large, and is divided into a number of rooms, one of which functions as a bar (my sister headed off in that direction, and was immediately turned back by a vigilant usher, who apparently didn’t think women could- or should- go to bars!). Anyway, we were ushered, down a narrow and rather dingy corridor, into a tiny room with four tables- a `family room’, we were later assured. The room was fairly typical: pastel wallpaper, faux Chinese-style wooden tables and chairs (you know what I mean: geometrical designs, crimson satin upholstery and the like) and a clutch of attentive waiters.

What matters, of course, is the food- and it’s excellent. A decent enough selection of fried rice, noodles, seafood, lamb, chicken and the like, and all of it tempting. We ordered golden fried prawns (which came with a deliciously crisp, thin crust); chicken wonton soup (highly recommended: the soup’s gloriously clear and the wontons delicate), mixed fried rice (good, but not much different from what you might find elsewhere), Szechuan chicken, and fish with green pepper. The latter, (this being Kolkata) was particularly good, with the fish wonderfully fresh. The bill came to just over Rs 1,000 for three people, which works out to about US$7 per person: good value for money.

Nizam’s is one of Kolkata’s institutions- you can’t go to Kolkata and not visit Nizam’s! Not that it’s a very spiffy joint or anything of the sort; it’s just that Nizam’s makes the most luscious kathi kababs in the world- and this is not an exaggeration.

For those who aren’t too clued into what kathi kababs are all about, here’s a very brief explanation: they’re very thin, pliant breads, wrapped around a spicy mixture of vegetable or meat (if you’re not content with that, check out my `Dining in Delhi’ journal- that has a longer description of kathis and how they’re made).

Nizam’s lays claim- and probably justifiably- to the invention of kathi kababs. The story goes that Sheikh Hasan Reza, a chaprasi (a peon) at the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, decided in the early 1900s that his career wasn’t going anywhere and that he’d be better off selling food. He began with a tiny stall, hawking kababs and rotis (the thin Indian bread which is a staple all across Northern India), and when he realized that the finicky Brits who visited his stall didn’t like getting their fingers greasy, he hit upon the idea of the kabab wrap- the kathi kabab. Nizam’s- which was the restaurant Reza soon set up- is today a large, no-frills restaurant, with bare wooden tables and chairs, tiny curtained cubicles (for those who want some privacy) and no ornamentation to speak of. a little dingy, without any smart maître d’ or other jazz- but with splendid food.

Nizam’s makes good wholesome Muslim food- fragrant mutton and chicken curries, succulent kababs and aromatic biryanis (rice cooked with meat), but their pièce de resistance is the kathi. There’s a range of stuffings you can choose from- mutton, chicken, beef, or (my favourite, though it came as a bit of a shock when I discovered what it was) `kheeri’- udders. All the kathis come hot, wrapped in a paper napkin, with a helping of sliced onions and green chillies and a dollop of mint chutney on the side. Well-done, delicately spiced (the hallmark of typical Muslim cooking is that although a variety of spices are used, they’re invariably low on `heat), and gorgeous. One or two kathis are usually enough for one person, and a good meal (including aerated drinks- Coke’s available) should cost about Rs 60 (about a dollar and a half) per person. Give it a try- you won’t get better kathis.

Once known as Hogg’s Market, New Market (and there’s nothing new about it, barring some reconstruction after a fire here in 1985) is the place to go shopping in Kolkata. No, Benetton and Calvin Klein and big brands in the same league don’t have shops here; but some of Kolkata’s oldest stores do, and anyway, the market is interesting enough to visit just for the experience- it’s really more a historical sight, rather than a local market.

New Market was built in 1864 (that’s how `new’ it is!!), and ten years later, in 1874, the neighbouring Sir Stuart Hogg Market was added- today the two markets are more or less contiguous. With a newly-painted red, cream and green façade, New Market is fairly striking. It has a high vaulted ceiling, and rows of wooden shops stretch in neat lines from left to right and back to front. This isn’t one of your rickety-stall type of markets, so typical of South East Asia: it’s a regular brick-and-mortar market, with proper shops. At the very front of the market adjoining Lindsay Street, are florists, and in the next few rows are Chinese shoemakers- they make excellent customized footwear, and some of the best names here are Henry, Kowloon and S Hugh- try getting them to make shoes for you, if you’ve got a week or more in Kolkata.

Beyond the shoemakers, and covering most of New Market, are many more shops, selling clothing, books, jewellery and more; there’s also a fairly historic bakery called Nahum’s (alas, now on the verge shutting down) and plenty of stores selling other knick-knacks. Off to the right, separate from the rest of the shops, are stalls selling meat and chicken, rice, spices, prawn crackers, herbs, sweets, vegetables and fruit, paneer (the native `Indian cottage cheese’) and mundane stuff like that. It’s a smelly, often pretty untidy sort of area, but great for an exploratory walk-through: you’ll probably come across a lot of unusual spices, herbs and other ingredients. If you walk down, past the vegetable and meat sellers, away from Lindsay Street and towards the back of New Market, you’ll find some shops which sell Kolkata’s very own specialties: cane baskets, utensils, glass bangles, delectable cheese-and-palm-sugar sweets; and lovely embroidery, including cutwork and shadow work. Most of them are on the fringes of New Market, and are worth having a look at. The cane, sweets and embroidery are especially recommended- they make for great souvenirs, and are really the type of stuff you won’t find anywhere else in India.

The Indian Museum in Kolkata holds the distinction of being India’s largest (and oldest) museum and the world’s ninth-oldest regular museum. Sounds impressive, but unfortunately the place itself isn’t all that great- or maybe that was just because we were unlucky enough to visit it at a time when parts of it were closed for renovations. The museum’s housed in a large and fairly imposing white building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road (the building dates back to 1878, although the museum itself was established in 1814, at the office of the Asiatic Society). Sixty galleries surround a central garden, where you can sit down for a breather- which you’ll definitely need if you’re planning on going through the entire museum.

Among the Museum’s important galleries are ones on Art, Archaeology, Botany, Zoology and Geology- an impressive enough collection. The section on Indian artifacts is especially good- it includes fabulous stone sculptures, both religious and secular, and represent nearly all of India’s major historical schools of art: Gandhara, Mathura, Vengi, Sarnath, Pala, Hoysala and more. They’re worth a look (in fact, I’d go as far as to say they’re the main reason to visit this museum); the sculptures, both stone and bronze, are truly spectacular, with cavorting gods and goddesses, depictions of the Buddha, a few `man on the street’ statues, and such like- most are at least five hundred years old, and some date back to BC. The labelling’s rather dry and leaves a lot to be desired, but what the hell- the stuff’s good.

Other than that, we had a look at the Zoological Galleries- dark, dusty, poorly labeled and with some unpleasant surprises (we actually caught a glimpse of a full term human foetus in formaldehyde- awful!) and the Prehistoric Gallery- replete with glyptodons, prehistoric elephants, bits of fossil and stuff like that.

On the whole, the Museum’s not the sort of place you’d want to go back to- after spending around two hours wandering through it, we decided we didn’t want to see anything else. The only section worth a look are the galleries on Indian sculpture- they’re really good.

The brainchild of the Indian Viceroy Lord Curzon, the Victoria Memorial was begun in 1906 and completed in 1921, a somewhat delayed but fitting tribute to the Empress of India. Nearly a century later, it sits pretty, impressive and surprisingly clean- despite Kolkata’s pollution- amidst sprawling gardens, gravel pathways and cool watercourses.

Explore the grounds (which are dotted with bronze sculptures of Queen Victoria, and of many of India’s governors-general), and then enter the memorial, an imposing domed structure of white marble that looks straight out of Europe.

Inside, you’ll come to what’s known as the Queen’s Hall, fringed along its walls by marble busts of colonial Calcutta’s glitterati- Warren Hastings, Clive, Cornwallis and William Makepeace Thackeray- the latter’s here by virtue of having been born in Kolkata- among others. Also displayed are French cannons seized by Clive at the decisive Battle of Plassey (1757) and theodolites used to trigonometrically measure Mt Everest.

To the right of the Queen’s Hall is the `Artist’s Eye Gallery: India 1770-1835’, a fine collection of paintings depicting India in the 65 years from 1770 onwards- when the East India Company managed to get a foothold in India, and finally succeeded in establishing British rule here. The gallery features works by a vast number of painters- William Daniell, Arthur William Devis, William Hodges, Thomas Hickey, Johann Zoffany and Tilly Kettle (Kettle’s creations here include two splendid works, one of Mughal emperor Shah Alam reviewing the East India Company’s troops at Allahabad, and the other of the Nawab of Awadh, Shuja-ud-Daulah, with his four sons). The paintings in the gallery are very varied, and depict cities, people (British and Indian, common and noble) and Indian monuments.

Beyond the Queen’s Hall is one gallery you should aim on spending time in: the Calcutta Gallery. Amazingly eclectic, it’s largely occupied by a highly detailed account of the city’s history, including illustrations, old maps, photographs, and a few lifesize models. For those who haven’t the time to read each panel, do browse through the delightful odds and ends here. Among the best are sets of original paintingof natives (a hookah-burdar or hubble-bubble bearer; a coolie, a gwallan or milkmaid, a roti-wallah or bread-seller, etc); and of Calcutta during `Company’ days- tiger and hog hunts, parades and processions, merchants, scenes from Fort William, and more.

Other must-sees: parts of the first telegraph line laid in India between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour in 1851; Lord Minto’s office box (titled: `Governor General: Private’); Lord Hastings’ cufflinks; the original copy of the oath and proclamation of Robert Clive when he took over at Calcutta as Governor of Bengal; and a shockingly long listing of the servants in the household of Alexander Macrabie, Sheriff of Calcutta (110 servants for a family of 4!).

Entry tickets cost Rs 150 for non-Indians; the Memorial’s open between 10 and 4.30.

Ask any Indian- or rather any urban, educated Indian- and he or she will tell you that India has five metropolises: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. And if the Indian you choose to question has a little bit of time to spare, he or she will probably also tell you that each of these cities has a distinct character all its own. In Delhi, it’s politics, administration and pollution all the way; in Mumbai, it’s business and film-making; Chennai is populated by the upwardly mobile, as is Bangalore, which is, more or less, the Indian equivalent of Silicon Valley. Coming to the question of Kolkata (or Calcutta, as most of the world still knows it), your Indian may take some time to decide; because assigning an off-the-shelf character to Kolkata is quite a task. Politics is important here (and despite the sleek brands and big stores on Park Street, Kolkata is the capital of one of India’s communist states: the state of Kerala holds the record for being home to the world’s first elected communist government, and right on Kerala’s heels followed West Bengal). Literature, and culture, and art- all are important here. As is fish, football, cricket, filmmaking, commerce… and so much more.

Kolkata has an ambience all its own. We landed on a cool morning in October, and traveling the stretch from the airport to Ballygunge, where we were to stay, was an experience in itself: the bright yellow taxi we took was ramshackle, and the driver drove like a lunatic, but Kolkata’s traffic was too dense and too slow for even him to make his way to Ballygunge in less than the hour we eventually took. Trams rattled slowly past, on gleaming lines which had half-disappeared between grass; men went past, their cycles loaded with green coconuts; a roadside barber vigorously rubbed alum on the freshly-shaven jaw of a customer. Rickshaw-pullers ran past, bare feet thudding on the tarred road; pools of water, some covered with a thick carpet of water hyacinth, stood alongside the highway- and we saw another day begin in Kolkata.

Kolkata has many faces- and that can be a bit surprising, considering the fact that this city, compared to many of India’s other big cities, isn’t that old. Where Delhi or Chennai claim a past of many centuries, Kolkata is just over two centuries old. An East India Company man, Job Charnock, is credited with having established Calcutta (as it was named by the British), and it was the British who made Calcutta what it is. They built Fort William here; they made this the base of their expeditions into the rest of India; and they eventually made Calcutta the capital of India (before it was shifted to Delhi, in 1911).

The British have gone, as have most of the Anglo-Indians who were an important part of Calcutta society till the 1960s; but even today, Kolkata retains more than a trace of its colonial past. While India’s other cities call their municipal divisions `wards’, Kolkata calls them `boroughs’. While Delhi has done away with Hastings Road and Curzon Road and renamed them after patriotic leaders, Kolkata sticks stubbornly to Entally, Royd Street, and Elliott Street- each of which have more visible signs of a Brit past. Walk down them- or Park Street, Jawaharlal Nehru Road and Mirza Ghalib Street- and you’ll see what I mean: shuttered wooden windows, Corinthian columns, arches, wrought iron balconies- they’re all there, well-preserved, well-kept.

There are, of course, the more prominent monuments to the past: the imposing Victoria Memorial, its pristine white marble surviving, almost miraculously, the pollution of nearly a century; Fort William itself; St Paul’s Church; St James’ Church (known by everyone around as the `Joda Girja’- the `Pair Church’, because of its twin spires); Chaplin Square, its main gate topped with a black dome in the shape of a distinctive bowler hat; and- not to be overlooked- Kolkata’s very own brand of English. Bengalis are among the best educated of India’s people, and English in Kolkata’s better schools is of a very high standard, but whoever writes the slogans on Kolkata’s walls, no matter with how good an intent, apparently needs a bit of help. "Hooking can land you in prison" will probably not make any sense to the average illiterate hooker- but it definitely provided some entertainment for us.

There is much that is dear to Kolkata and its people. Fish would be among the top ten; for any Bengali, no meal would be complete without fish, and Kolkata consumes thousands of tons of seafood every year. As high on the list as fish, is football. Where the rest of India worships cricket with a fervour which borders on fanaticism, Kolkata thrives on soccer- although in recent years, with India’s cricket team being captained by a Calcuttan, loyalties have shifted a bit.

`Adda’ is another of Kolkata’s big-time favourites. It’s a Kolkata classic, the name given to the almost-daily meeting of a group of men, usually at a neighbourhood teashop, to discuss everything from poetry and politics to literature and love. Adda is the life-blood of too many Calcuttans to die out completely, and despite television and other more contemporary forms of entertainment, adda survives. Like the Calcuttan’s love for sweets; like his enthusiastic celebration of the annual festival of Durga Puja, in October, when all of Kolkata holidays. Like his respect for illustrious Calcuttans of the past: Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore; film-maker Satyajit Ray; philosopher Raja Rammohan Roy; scientist Meghnad Saha, who first translated Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into English…yes, to list all of Kolkata’s best-loved people would require more than just a few pages. It would also probably require a visit of at least a month to come to understand this city really well.

If you’re in India, come to Kolkata: this is a city with a deliciously cosmopolitan feel to it, a charm and a quaintness which none of India’s other big cities can match.