Kolkata addas!

Kolkata is distinctly different from other metros in its unique adda, the informal chat sessions. Being born in Bengal and having spent most of my life in Kolkata, I had experienced the thrill of vibrant adda for nearly two decades of my life. The important aspect of adda is that it has no set schedule, save sessions following crucial soccer matches between the most popular clubs, obviously Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, Cricket- India Vs any country, and a few movies released with popular matinee idols.

Those were days when there were no mobile phones, nor was the Internet and Google. Telephones, too, were few and famous for their frequent breakdowns. The job scenario was worse in Bengal than today; the exodus of corporates began in the seventies. Naxalism had firmly gripped the state, but the friends meeting in Adda sessions mostly kept politics away. Or a cup of tea after an animated argument would lighten the mood. No one was hurt and none lost in the adda sessions, which were win-win for all. The lure of adda would ensure the return of those touring the districts or adjoining states for the weekend sessions.

Shared cups of tea, ‘double half,’ in earthen cups were sufficient to spend the whole evenings over matters from Cuba,  Che Guevara, Vietnam, or the World Bank, only to name a few subjects. It could also animatedly discuss the missed corner shots or free kicks or sill catch misses at the first slip in the cricket match played somewhere far away like Australia, captured vividly over a transistor.

Groups were normally of the same age, often from the college and sticking on until one got married or transferred on jobs. Addas were magnetic, as it would draw our group over the ‘rock,’ seat from the kerbstones laid one top of another near a tree. Periodically, someone would sneak a peek to drive away from the eavesdropping crows, which would proclaim their territorial rights by their drops.

Addas rarely involved personal matters and had to involve the group’s interests. A few other groups would also assemble close by, some playing chess and a few carroms. Quite vanishing trick of one or other upon seeing their girlfriends at a distance were generously pardoned. Sangu Valley Restaurant was a nucleus for our adda sessions on weekdays, and the Calcutta Coffee House on Basusree Cinema building was our Sunday venue. Sunday sessions were long, commencing from 11 am and stretching often until 3 pm with the endless serving of steaming filter Coffee,  the large group remembering their homes and reluctantly leaving. The Coffee House addas included film directors, musicians, and artists, adding to the topics that the adda covered.

It was not the crows alone; we too held a territorial right to our adda places, ‘tehk’ as it was called in Bengali. Religious preferences were tolerated and accepted, as were political leanings. As one who joined a few adda groups in the North (Hatibagan) or Central (Entally), adda quality in each part of the city varied and unique by itself. One could find a few girls in the adda sessions of North Calcutta, while the males dominated the adda tekhs in the South. Rock’er addas could have begun as a social protest against similar assembly of the rich Bengali bhodroloks (gentry).

How could one find time day after day, participants drawn like the bees towards honeyed flowers? Such attraction is becoming rarer now due to stressful and complex living styles. No matter what, online chats like WhatsApp can never replace the physical thrill of adda sessions over a singara, a cuppa or half, or steaming coffee. The harmless taunts and mocks and effortless changeover of topics and above all with no agenda, hidden or otherwise, will keep the legacy of Kolkata addas alive for now and forever.

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix