Walking around Kolkata-6

A century-old house, 19th century church, 300-year-old temple-in north Kolkata, the past lives in the present

- Nipa Charagi

I am standing at the Chalta Bagan petrol pump on Vivekananda Road, in north Kolkata, with its "I love Kolkata" neon sign. I cross over into the side street, beckoned by the brick-red facade and brown shuttered windows of an elegant three-storeyed house. Built in 1922, it's aptly called Scarlet Home. Ensconced on the ground floor is a newly opened café, Jiabharali T. Café, its white painted doors and windows making for a nice contrast. Jutting out above the café door is a Juliet balcony. Perhaps this is what the late urban theorist Jane Jacobs meant when she said: "New ideas need old buildings."

Old buildings and institutes are aplenty in this neighbourhood, pin code 6, dense with roadside tea stalls with coal-fired stoves and plastic jars filled with biscuits. People sit on benches and stools, quaffing tea from disposable earthen cups while chatting. On the morning after the Fifa World Cup final, I could hear a man, perhaps a Les Bleus supporter, say exasperatedly, "Mbappé aeka ei khelay jachey (Mbappé was literally playing alone)." These tea shops are communal spaces, like the red-oxide rowak-a raised platform in front of traditional houses where people hang around.