by Soutrik Dutta

Kolkata !! As everyone would spell is just the city of joy. But is it all that it has to offer?

A city where life and soul are mixed with ingredients of emotion and heritage cooked in the plater of modernity.

A  city where the imaginary of tall towers, IT parks, expressways, imported cars, shopping malls is just one side of the coin. The old dilapidated houses, narrow streets,century-old shops with all their woven emotions and life still remains on the other side

Unique!! But why does it? The uniqueness of this city is not because of high torrential development but it’s the inertia of holding to its traditions and heritage even while paving to modernize. Unlike other metro cities, Kolkata still holds to its roots.,it’s identity. What’s the use of a development booster if identity is submerged in the tide of development? And this intermingling of heritage, history with modernity is what makes it unique.

Kolkata just like an ordinary city too had an interesting story to tell to those whose ears search for those invisible souls which make this city so full of life. Everything in this city is just contradicting while coexisting. How could contrasting hues make such a beautiful picture, Kolkata would be the perfect canvas to see.

While the northern part of the city still houses the old dilapidated century-old British period houses, narrow streets cherries by the famous street cricket by half-naked school bunked boys, the southern part has the finest of the bypasses, sky kissing towers, sweetest and ecstatic restaurants, and country one of the largest stadiums.

While the streets of North Calcutta ready and garlands themselves with the cheering voices coming out from radio s and gramophone coming from those general households, the south is studied with hundreds of bars and studios where Rennix and jazz and Metallica rules the roast. While the city still takes pride in its British era tram lines crisscrossing over its heart and  notorious for traffic it to has India’s first metro, a spectacle of modernization

While the mighty coffee house or the Mitra cafe or the golbalir koshamansho may embrace you with their heritage and ambiance of uniqueness to give you a  feeling to be sharing the same table as that of  Gandhi’s and subash, the crowded and non-chelant atmosphere may make you shed sweat. On the other hand, the Bhuj khalifa type restaurants scattered over the southern part of the city may give you the comfort you dreamed of but not that feeling of emotional satiety.

While the city might offer you with the glimpse of people chatting the whole day in the street tea stall with earthen cups, cigarettes, and newspapers in their hand discussing Mamta to Donald Trump for whom the clock has just stopped ticking off, another stark contrast of IT hubs waits for you at the other end of the city where PowerPoint presentations are more important than their girlfriends call.

A city many call to have an anglophilic streak is the one to nail the last nail to the coffers of the British empire. While you still see people’s fascinations and rumblings for British era architecture like Howrah bridge, Victoria, tramways the heart still throbs and boasts for the freedom fighters born to this her soul. How contrasting. Isn’t it !! This contrasts even dates back to the imperial times too where on one hand you had the bhadralok class loyal to the empire in their taste, language, and choices the other specter gave way to India’s most heart-wrenching valiant revolutionaries who tried to uproot the empire by its roots. And thus it’s not shocking to see persons admiring the British way of life or their Renaissance too have the most patriotic soul. Isn’t that a paradox or is it unexpected in a city of revolutionaries? Thus the city  which has the largest number of British institutions also have the largest number of institutions born out of the freedom movement

While the city prides itself with the Bengal Renaissance be it through Ram Mohan Roy, Tagore, Vidyasagar and other luminaries it too had its own pool of orthodox clergies and rituals. Sati and kulin pratha (the ritual of marrying a dozen girls) were just the cherry on the cake of the obscurantist rituals of that time.

Philosophies too were not left untouched by the contrasting hues of the city. While you have the anti ritualistic Brahmo samaj is, Kesab Chandra Sen on one hand it also merited ritualistic and spiritualistic Ramakrishna dev to the collective conscience.

While the city bore the brunt of the most horrific communal riots of partition, the contrasting part was it had the least clashes post-independence maintaining a secular and inclusive polity all throughout. Even when the whole country ravaged into the fire of hate, this city had the breeze of communal harmony.

While this city which saw Tagore’s refusal of knighthood in the backdrop of partition of Bengal succumbed to the same and witnessed flowing blood through its gutters 40 years later.

Durga puja, the most celebrated and cherished festival in this part of the city has its own share of contrasting grey.

While in one place the Durga puja is observed with all its orthodoxies and traditionalness called “shabekiana”, there are others where these same rituals are just a part if not obscured and the festivity and emotions of celebration form the real essence. These are the ones for whom” Sharad Utsav ” is the word rather than “durgatsob”.

The city where you can find sects who shuns non-veg for their whole lifetime also celebrates their largest festival with all the meats and flesh in their gulps even on days which regarded to be blasphemous in other cities. This is a state where not only contrasting philosophies and political ideologies coexisted but also competitive. While the pre-independent and post-independent Bengal had a secular liberal polity mostly, this is not to forget that this city shaped the right-wing stalwarts like Mukherjee, Savarkar.

Not only that while on one hand, this city witnessed the ruling by the communist forces and even their splitting into reddish and dark red versions, it’s the same city which lay witness to the coalition of two arch communal and right-wing forces-Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha.

How ironic isn’t it!! The two rivals who sat on the same table were out with their daggers to slash each other’s throats a year later Kolkata is a city where protest is just not accurate but celebrated. It’s a place where love for politics and books is as important as the love for food and culture.

The city which housed the world’s second-largest, second-hand book market also houses the most decorated book fair of the year.

From a 30 rupees, stomach filled lunch to a taste bud rinsing biriyani at Taj Kolkata knows it’s guests. The contrasts are in all its layers and the hues in the air.

But this doesn’t make these contrasts rigid .contrasts are just dynamic and flowing like fluids. So while a middle-aged man who spent his childhood playing the street cricket may see himself in one of the skyscrapers or the man born in one of the high towers may hover around the century-old sweet shops or the historic coffee house to have the smell of the heritage and emotions of the city.

A city that still hankers around the yellow taxis, hand-pulled rickshaws in a world of uber and ola cabs has truly some uniqueness in it. It’s a city where modernity could not erase the heritage, tradition, and emotions. Modernity and heritage may come as contrasting hues but for a human being, these contrasts make their life worth living. Because life is not about one side of the contrasts but an intermingling of it. It is just an amalgamation of different shades that Kolkata has to offer. It’s a city where a 5-star guest visits the golbalir koshamansho to quelch his thirst of stomach and smell and feel the warmth of the city. That’s what Kolkata was and will be.

Truly Kolkata is not just a city of joy but a city of rainbows intermingling different shades of life.

About the Author:

Dr. Soutrik Kumar Dutta is a resident doctor at the department of medicine, Assam medical college residing in Dibrugarh.