STRANGERS in search of old Calcutta, a city that has already celebrated its 300th birthday, rarely get beyond the monumental British town, with its abundant Victoriana, or the temples and slums of ancient Hindu Kali Ghat to the south, where Mother Teresa ministers to the poor. This limitation is not the visitor’s fault.
If the third historical neighborhood, Sutanuti, or north Calcutta, is still unknown, it is because the guidebooks have yet to discover it. North Calcutta is a warren of narrow lanes winding around the astonishing hidden palaces of the babus and boxwallahs, the Indian clerks, officials and businessmen of wealth and social status who thrived at the edge of British India while nurturing the classical Indian arts and a deep Bengali nationalism. The British called the neighborhood, several square miles in area, the ’’native town’’ and rarely went there.
But Calcutta is changing!
Boomtown fever is gripping this city, where Mother Teresa once ministered to the poor and sick. Dazzling skyscrapers, tacky billboards and huge tracts of land set aside for malls and condos have turned Kolkata into a showcase of free enterprise and private investment...What is happening in West Bengal is emblematic of the economic liberalization sweeping the country and fueling its impressive growth...Residents in Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, describe a revived sense of confidence and can-do spirit..Traffic can still exasperate, but a new highway connects the airport to downtown and a gleaming new bridge spans the Hooghly River.
Calcutta is presenting itself in a new form to the outsiders. People who used to criticize Calcutta for its love for the RED and unwillingness to work, has acknowledged the change of Kolkata. Flyovers, good roads, bridges, high rises, malls, pubs, clubs, hotels, etc. constitute the life of new Calcutta. With the arrival of multinationals as well as the Indian companies, Calcutta is bound to become the hottest business destination within a couple of years.
Just a couple of years.........and Calcutta will be No.1 in India