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Adda in Calcutta

Adda in Calcutta is now perceived to be a dying practice. Calcutta has seen a series of self-conscious efforts in recent times to preserve reminiscences of Bengali addas of the last hundred years or so.

Saiyad Mujtaba Ali stroke a note of remembrance over the slow demise dying of adda as early as the 1970s:
"It is incontrovertible that genuinely distinguished addas are now as good as dead even if they seem alive. How many of the five-story, ten-story buildings going up in Calcutta today have [spaces] for adda?" A catalogue of Bengali books in print brought out by the Publishers Guild in Calcutta on the occasion of the Calcutta Book Fair in 1997 mourned the loss of the

spirit of adda from the trade itself. The introductory essay surveying the history of the last fifty years of book publishing in Calcutta ended on a nostalgic and melancholic note: "The cover designs of [Bengali] books have changed, as has changed the artistry of publication. There is a larger variety of topics now. Along with new writers will come new

publishers. . . . But will we ever get back that which has now disappeared for ever from the world of Bengali literature — literary addas? Perhaps some will be struck by pain at this. But what other path is there to follow except to press forward even as our hearts’ ache?" Miserably for the Bengali adda-lovers, multistoried buildings have replaced roadside verandahs. Parks and pavements have slowly vanished. Today’s adolescence are more engrossed in their careers, net surfing, computer classes and other extra-curricular activities. Men and women nowadays pursue packed schedules; however, some still cling to this characteristic Bengali leisure.

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