That was Kolkata’s social club ambience in the colonial ’40s, fashionable ’50s and swinging ’60s. It was the best of times for the clubs, which were established by the British and radiated the city’s colonial past, wearing its legacy that was being hurriedly discarded outside the premises. At most clubs, like the 128-year-old Tollygunge Club, Calcutta Club, Bengal Club or Royal Calcutta Golf Club, men had to wear dinner jackets and women formals. M any still hold on to the dress code in certain areas of their premises despite being scoffed at for being elitist and colonial, while some have partially relaxed their rules. Many new clubs have joined in; though they lack the history and heritage of their more famous peers, they pull in youngsters who love the casual air, innovative food and no bar on dressing.

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Clubs like Tolly, RCGC and CCFC have a strong sporting tradition and continue to host golf, football, cricket and tennis events. Tolly Club had a racecourse till the late-’70s. It still boasts of a stable of horses and riding remains popular among members and kids. While CCFC, the oldest sporting club in India, has hosted first-class cricket matches, RCGC golf course is the oldest in Asia. Calcutta Club was established in 1907 after industrialist Rajendra Nath Mookerjee was refused entry into the main dining room of Bengal Club, then reserved for the British. He launched Calcutta Club with a few others, including some Europeans. The club had equal representation of Indians and Europeans in its administration. “With 3,800 members, we are now one of the largest in India. Unlike many others, Calcutta Club is purely a social club. Some of our events, like the annual debate, are talked about across the country,” said club president Abhijit Ghosh. The club i s known for its library and the delicacies at the bakery festival.

​Club (in pic), founded in 1827, is one of the oldest social clubs; while most old clubs in Kolkata had a colonial and formal ambience, many are now embracing a more casual approach

While most had a formal, a very British stiffupper lipambience, many are now embracing a more casual approach. Calcutta Club allows casual wear till 7pm and the dress code is relaxed in the ‘outsourced’ dining areas. “We have been taking in woman members since 1998. Sporting activities have been introduced to attract youngsters, helping to bring down the average age of members,” said Ghosh.

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​● Sreya Das, a public relations executive, browses through the videos of her favourite YouTuber and picks a new swanky cafe in south Kolkata to visit on Saturday evenings.

​Content creators and influencers are out there, digging out information on the hidden gems and historical anecdotes of the city as well as on the splashy, new coffee shops, watering holes and boutiques, and updating them on photo video and information-sharing social media platforms. The endless stream of photos, videos and reels on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube is fuelling “re-discovering” of Calcutta. Suitably influenced, viewers are chalking out trips to the city’s monuments, the almost-forgotten, old neighbourhoods, the Maidan, and of course to food joints—old and new—not only to enjoy the places but also for the “Instagrammable” graffiti, French windows of old mansions, or the green bench, perfect to be posed on for the next online post.

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​Instagram reels were launched in August 2020, the peak of the pandemic, when the world was locked up at home. The short videos, some of them informative, some of them funny, immediately caught the fancy of people, who were starved of social interactions outside. “I lived in the Burrabazar area and went to a school on B B Ganguly Street. I passed by Bow Barracks many times but was not even aware that such a para existed. During the pandemic, when I started watching Instagram reels, I first learnt about it. I found it interesting and read up on it and finally, in December 2022, I went there with a photo-walk group,” said Mantri.

​The influencers are also influenced by the interest and “views” their posts garner, steering them to the various topics they create. While some have carved a niche in food, some specialise in travels. Some, like Calcutta Houses, with more than 20,000 followers, describes itself as a tableau of photographs and illustrations. Architecture enthusiasts have even asked them to document beautiful but crumbling structures for future reference. “People ask us on comments and DMs about locations of old mansions so that people can go and take pictures themselves,” said a team member.

Kolkata’s Illusion started its Instagram account in 2018 but itwas only during the pandemic that it became popular. It now has 1,80,000 followers. “From the beauty of Bengal to nostalgia, we make content on various themes,” said Moinak Bhattacharjee, founder, who runs it with co-founder Progya Biswas and admin Sagnik Dutta.

​Such is the reach of influencers that business houses as well as smalltime traders approach them to reach their target audience. “They bring an element of freshness. This is why we prefer them for endorsement,” said the head of a cafe chain in Kolkata.
​The walks and trails that have become popular in the city, especially during winters, are a testimony to the social media evoking interests about certain pockets and aspects of Kolkata. “There has been a renewed interest in the old neighbourhoods of the city, the communities that reside there and their culture and food,” said Arijit Banerjee, an independent photographer who organises photo walks in Burrabazar, lanes of central Kolkata and Chinatown. “Our slots get booked fast and participants take a keen interest in the history of the places. They then refer the walks to their friends and families. After the pandemic, I have doubled the number of walks because of the high demand. ”Given the sway that influencers have, hotels, restaurants, clubs, cafes, foreign missions, art galleries and even small-time businesspersons have been hiring social media managers and digital communicators, generating new employment and entrepreneurship opportunities that did not exist earlier. “The idea is to use platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, to sell an immersive experience to people, replete with food, culture and history,” said the social media manager of a star hotel in the city.
​Buoyed by success, many content creators are upgrading themselves, moving from mere smartphones to high-end cameras, stabilizers, tripods, more powerful lenses and even action cameras. “From selling only analogue cameras, we have started stocking up on devices required for content creation. From influencers to those who are just starting out, we have a stream of customers coming in every day for those devices,” said Mohammad Aziz, who runs a shop in Metro Gully in Esplanade.

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KOLKATA: A small and sparkling slice of Kolkata’s sky has become the latest sensation on the timeline of city’s Instagrammers and social media enthusiasts portraying the myriad hues of the rising sun.

Early in the morning every day, scores of amateur photographers and professional shutterbugs train their smartphones and lenses on the eastern part of the sky on Maidan to photograph the perfect twilight frames when the sun crosses the space between Tata Centre and a residential high-rise coming up beside it.

This is only the latest additions to the list of places in the city which are popular with Instagrammers and social media enthusiasts. Kumortuli, Prinsep Ghat, Kolkata Gate, China Town near Tiretta Market, several churches, mosques and temples and Victoria Memorial have been receiving “love signs” on Instagram which is equivalent of “like” on Facebook.

Instagram is a photo sharing app which can be accessed on smartphones and on personal computers. Sociologists say apps like Instagram create a space to curate images for subcultural groups to portray a city and its landmarks through their perspective. These images are colourful and attractive but there are only certain images of the city.

Debangshu Mukherjee is an IT professional and an amateur photographer who is member of several Instagram groups.
“It is like an eruption of fiery colours when they come out from the horizon and emerge from behind the buildings,” said Mukherjee. “The colour of the sky changes after every few minutes and the phenomenon lasts for only a few minutes.”

For many to get a glimpse — and good frames — of the rising sun means dragging themselves out of the bed by 4- 4.30am.

“I stay in the southern suburbs of the city and it takes me at least 45 minutes to reach Maidan. It means I have to wake up really early,” said Ankit Dutta, another Instagrammer.

Several landmarks in Kolkata have been pitchforked to international “fame”, courtesy the reach of social media. Before any festival or cultural events, the Instagram or Facebook feed is crammed with related pictures. While Kumartuli registers maximum footfalls when the idols are being carved, Zakaria Street is the most popular destination of Instagrammers in Ramzan.

“Even foreigners visiting the city can be located at these places clicking pictures because they have seen them on Instagram,” said Instagrammer Rai Dasgupta.

One can easily view the photos by adding hashtag (#) symbol to the name of the place or occasion in the search section which will throw up related images.

Sociologists caution about the inequalities between what is on a photo-sharing app and what is offline.

“Such apps are built in a manner that they push a certain aesthetic sense. When several sub-cultural groups post colourful and attractive pictures it curates a particular image of a city or a place. But there is a possibility that a large part of the city is left out because it may not reinforce the same aesthetics,” said Sujoy Ghosh, a city-based sociologist.

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The American Center, Kolkata, hosted a poetry workshop as part of the National Poetry Month programme. Students from eight schools of Kolkata participated in the workshop which was facilitated by writer Baisali Chatterjee Dutt. Besides interacting with the National Youth Poet Laureate Alyssa Gaine virtually, the students, in groups of five, gave presentations on poems under the theme DEIA (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and accessibility). The presentations were judged by Melinda Pavek, Consul General of USA in Kolkata and Juan Clar, Deputy Director, American Center.
Talking about the need to work through issues for a better world, Melinda Pavek said, “The need to help us unite is big today — in our homes, classrooms, communities, and globally — we have a lot of divisions to work through and discord to discuss and resolve for a better world. I believe that each one of us, by leveraging the poetry we have experienced in our lives — whether it made us laugh, cry, think, smile, dream, or all of the above — can help to shape and re-shape the future of our world.” She continued by saying, “As much as we take pride in ourselves on the printed poetry collections of American greats such as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman, Maya Angelou, and Robert Frost, we also celebrate new voices in American literature through the poetry of Ocean Vuong, Joy Harjo, Jericho Brown, Meera Dasgupta, Amanda Gorman, and of course, the talented Alyssa Gaines, to name a few whose books proudly sit on our shelves. These are the diverse voices who are living and writing to tell the tales of a nation that is finding new, more effective ways to respect the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility throughout all we do.”

Reflecting on the poem as an instrument to create empathy in society, Juan Clar said,“Poetry is a very powerful tool that has been used by humans ever since we learnt to speak, poetry sheds light on people’s experiences, sometimes it tells stories but most importantly the listeners and readers can create empathy for the person who created the poem and for the experiences that the poet is trying to narrate, and the more empathy there is in the world , the better place the world will become.”
The National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American poets in April 1996 to remember that poets have an integral part to play in our culture.

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