Park Street - Charm of Kolkata

Every city has a heartbeat, a part that defines its character, becoming its soul. If you ever choose to visit Kolkata – ‘Park Street’ is your must-visit, must-go venue; a stretch of the city – running from one end of its heart to another. Be it for a breezy saunter, or to try the famous CheloKabab of Peter Cat, this will be a walk to remember.

So what is Park Street?

An arterial road – at the epicenter of the city’s core fiber, that boasts of some of the finest, most revered, most illustrious, historic and exotic eating houses, restaurants and watering holes. Juxtaposed with that are a variety of offices and work buildings, street vendors selling multiple wares, book shops, curio-stalls, an auction house and some of the oldest constructions in city – standing tall, as erect monuments to a ‘once-was’ universe.

So how do you go about Park Street? Where do you begin and how do you optimize your experience?

You start at one end – in fact a connecting sub-street – Russell Street is your first spot where you initiate your Park Street experience. Standing around you marvel at the constant influx of people – a chaotic, anomalous menagerie that’s symbolic of what Kolkata is – a cosmopolitan, multi-faceted, multi-layered group of people who define the pulse of the city.

Okay, so as you walk by Russell Street you take a look at the grand old ITC building – a corporate giant based out Kolkata for over a 100 years and the wonderful ‘Russell Dhaba’ just next to it – also almost a 100 years old. Its ‘chai’ or tea is what attracts people by the droves, its alu/gobi/peeyaz parathas are a favorite and its kaali daal, they say, is to die for. But hold on we are just getting started.
As you walk ahead, you reach Hobby Center – another institution unto itself – recognized as one of India’s oldest ice cream parlors. A little ahead and you reach the Park Hotel – a hub for the city’s young and restless, home to a number of uber-popular bars, nightclubs and band/open mic nights. Right next, is Oxford, once a lending library and now a book shop cum tea bar that’s always buzzing with events, chatter, tourists and the delicious smell of literature.
And this is where things get interesting – the rest of Park Street is well, a series of places to eat or drink, on either side of the road, flanked by vendors at every corner selling magazines and books and holding up a plethora of offices at the back.

And if a bar is your thing – Park Street offers an array of choices – choices steeped in history, in culture, in a beautiful fabric of people, music, discussions, debates, loves, hates and the like – truly all that is quintessentially the soul of Kolkata. Also there’s live music happening at a bunch of places, ranging from classic rock to ever-green Bollywood to local chart hits

And finally I saved the best for the last. Established over 50 years ago, Flurys is your classic tea shop – made trendy and cool. Enjoy a massive fare of treats, savories, confectionaries, teas, coffees, cakes and other goodies. Sit by the giant windows, watch the passage of human traffic and relive the Kolkata Park Street experience – the way it’s meant to be imbibed, felt and realized.
Okay, enough of romanticizing a street – that said, Kolkata’s true charm is in its soft, nostalgic glow, its mellow hue and if you don’t get to Park Street, you may never truly live the Kolkata microcosm. Walk by, soon!