FIRST TRYST WITH KOLKATA

If I were to tell you that I'd never been to Calcutta, you'd find that hard to believe?

- Nisha JamVwal

My love for so many Bengali things from cuisine to Kantha drew me to take a one-day pit stop en route a long time planned weekend to Ganga Kutir.The city came across as busy and overcrowded like many Indian metros. But the difference is palpable almost immediately.

Airport representatives, drivers, even porters are articulate — casually using words like “iconic,” and “teeming” - keen to discuss politics, opinionated and expressive. Friends have long joked that even Calcutta’s paanwallas read P.G. Wodehouse and quote Shakespeare. Our driver lived up to the stereotype, offering a nuanced critique of “Didi” and the political malaise she is that many feel has stalled the city’s promise. Almost everyone discussed art monuments and politics!

With barely half a day, I raced through Howrah Bridge (which locals charmingly pronounce “breeze”), the National Library at Belvedere House, Victoria Memorial, and St Paul's Cathedral.