One of the four great urban centres
of India,
CALCUTTA is to its
proud citizens the equal of any city
in the country in charm, variety and
interest. Like Mumbai and Chennai,
it is not an ancient city; its roots
lie in the European expansion of the
seventeenth century. The showpiece
capital of the British Raj, this was
the greatest colonial city of the
Orient. Descendants of the
fortune-seekers who flocked from
across the globe to participate in
Calcutta's eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century trading boom
remain conspicuous in its
cosmopolitan blend of communities.
Despite this, there has been a
recent rise in Bengali nationalism,
which has resulted in the renaming
of the city as
KOLKATA - the
Bengali pronunciation and official
new name - which has yet to be
universally embraced.
Since Indian Independence mass
migrations of dispossessed refugees,
occasioned by twentieth-century
upheavals within the subcontinent,
have tested the city's
infrastructure to the limit. The
resultant suffering - and the work
of Mother Teresa in drawing
attention to its most pathetic
victims - has given Calcutta a
reputation for poverty that
its residents consider ill-founded.
They argue that the city's problems
are no longer as acute as those of
Mumbai or other cities across the
world, and that the slum scenes
familiar from the book and film City
of Joy are distortions of the
truth. In fact, though Calcutta's
mighty Victorian buildings lie
peeling and decaying, and its
avenues have long been choked by its
inability to expand any further,
Calcutta exudes a warmth that leaves
few visitors unmoved. The opening of
India's first underground system in
1984 was seen as the first portent
of a new economic beginning, but
there is little denying that, over
the years, the city has lost much
ground to newly emerging commercial
centres elsewhere in the country.
The Bengalis of Calcutta like to
see themselves as the intelligentsia
of India; a long-standing maxim
states that "what Bengal does
today, India will do tomorrow."
This is a city where artistic
endeavour is held in higher esteem
than political and economic success,
home to a multitude of galleries
and huge Indian classical music
festivals, with a thriving
Bengali-language theatre
scene and a tradition of cinema
brought world renown by Satyajit
Ray. Adding to the chaos and colour,
Calcutta has a wonderful tradition
of political posters and graffiti.
Witty and flamboyant slogans compete
with a forest of advertising
hoardings to festoon every available
surface.
Though Marxists may rule from the
chief bastion of imperialism, the Writers
Building , and the site of the
notorious Black Hole of Calcutta,
now obscured by the main post
office, visitors still experience
Calcutta first and foremost as a
colonial city. Grand edifices in a
profusion of styles include the
imposing Victoria Memorial
and the gothic St Paul's
Cathedral , while the eclectic Indian
Museum , one of the largest
museums in Asia, ranges from natural
history to art and archeology. Among
numerous venerable Raj institutions
to have survived are the racecourse,
the polo ground, the reverence for
cricket and several exclusive
gentlemen's clubs.
In terms of climate,
Calcutta is at its best during its
short winter, when the daily maximum
temperature hovers around 27ฐC, and
the markets are filled with
vegetables and flowers. Before the
monsoons, the heat hangs unbearably
heavy; the arrival of the rains in
late June brings relief, but usually
also heavy floods that turn the
streets into a quagmire. After a
brief period of post-monsoon heat,
October and November are quite
pleasant; this is the time of the
city's biggest festival, Durga
Puja.
