For some of us, Calcutta isn't a city. It's a way of life. The city's lean, grimy skyscrapers jostle for space with majestic, colonial architecture. Tracks for trams crisscross the rain-washed roads and the pavements are the domain of small-scale businesses flourishing just as well as the swarms of mosquitoes that hover over people's heads as they take an evening stroll by the lake.
Kolkata, then Calcutta, was the capital of India's British empire until 1911 before the capital was relocated to Delhi. The lugubrious Hooghly bear silent testimony to India's violent struggle for freedom, seeded in this city. This is the city of Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Subhas Chandra Bose and Satyajit Ray.