There is a habit of describing Kolkata as faded, which is both lazy and slightly insulting to a city of fifteen million people that produces a disproportionate share of the country's writers, film-makers, economists and arguments. What is true is that Kolkata wears its past in the open — the buildings of the colonial capital are still standing and still in use — and that it has never bothered to smarten itself up for visitors. That is precisely why it is worth going.
A city you can actually walk
Kolkata's great practical advantage is scale. The colonial core — the Maidan, Dalhousie Square, the courts, the old trading houses, the river — is compact and continuous in a way that Delhi's dispersed monuments and Mumbai's stretched-out island simply are not. A morning on foot here shows you more than a day in a car does elsewhere. The Ambassador taxis, still yellow, still everywhere, are part of the texture rather than a museum piece.
Kumartuli
In the north of the city there is a lane of workshops where the clay idols for the festivals are built — armatures of straw and bamboo, layered with river clay, painted and dressed. In the months before Durga PujaPujaAn act of Hindu worship — offerings of flowers, food, light or water made to a deity at a temple or a household shrine.Read in the glossary, Kumartuli works around the clock, and walking it is the most extraordinary craft experience available in any Indian city. It is a working quarter, not an attraction; go with someone who knows the families, and buy nothing you have not been offered.
Coffee house culture, and why the arguing matters
Kolkata's intellectual self-image is not affectation — the College Street coffee houses, the second-hand book market that runs for streets, the little magazines and the film societies are all still functioning. For a certain kind of traveller this is the whole point of the city: it is a place where ideas are a form of public entertainment.
Durga Puja, and when to come
Durga Puja, usually falling in late September or October, is when the city becomes something else entirely — thousands of temporary pavilions, each commissioned, designed and judged, and a population that does not sleep for five days. It is genuinely one of the great festivals on earth and it demands planning far in advance.
Outside the festival, the season is the same as the rest of the north: October to March, when the humidity relents. Avoid the pre-monsoon months, which are heavy.
Questions, Answered
Is Kolkata worth visiting?
For travellers interested in architecture, literature, craft and street life, it is one of the most rewarding cities in India — and one of the least visited by international itineraries. It is a walking city with a compact colonial core, a serious food culture, and a living intellectual life.
How many days do you need in Kolkata?
Three days is a good measure — one for the colonial core on foot, one for the northern city including Kumartuli and the older lanes, and one for the museums, the river and whatever the first two days made you curious about.
When is Durga Puja?
Durga Puja usually falls in late September or October; the exact dates shift each year with the lunar calendar. It is the city's defining festival and requires booking many months in advance.
What is the best time to visit Kolkata?
October to March, when humidity drops and the days are comfortable. The pre-monsoon months from April are hot and heavy, and the monsoon brings serious rain.
What is Kumartuli?
A quarter in north Kolkata where families of artisans build the clay idols used in the city's festivals, working from straw and bamboo armatures layered with river clay. It is a working craft neighbourhood at its most intense in the weeks before Durga Puja.
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