[Urbanstudy] resending adda

[jhelum biswas]

  Hi,
Just realised that the attachments can be a difficulty for many so I am resending the posting which i made today morning.
Thanks,
Jhelum.

Hello. My research is on Kolkata and Modern Indian English Literature. English language and the city has a very unique relationship, which can be understood better only after knowing a little bit about the culture of the city. “adda” is one of the markers of the city. It holds in itself a strong essence of what the city is all about. Therefore, as my first posting I am presenting a short paper on the adda culture of Calcutta. Hope you all enjoy it. 
Will look forward to remarks and comments.


ADDA

 	Adda is almost synonymous with Bengali culture. It is often said that it is the lifeblood of Bengalis. It is the quintessential aspect of their culture. In fact, wherever there are Bengalis there is bound to be an adda. But what is this adda? Some food item? No its not, though again food is an essential part of Bengali adda. One could say that adda serves the purpose of travel and food – the two passions of Bengalis. And of course addas invariably include Rabindranath, Satyajit Ray, Uttam Kumar, football, Saurav, Amartya Sen.
The word now exists even in the oxford English dictionary. The closest English word that can describe the essence of adda is chat. Not the e-version, but the real one. It's a friendly, casual conversation at an informal gathering of like-minded people, who want to talk their hearts out as a means of relaxation during leisure hours. Pratap Kumar Roy, a former newspaper editor, has this most delightful of definition to offer: “It is a long talking session, commonly of a recurrent sort, among friends or co-activists. It is not simply a conversation or discussion, or debate or gossip and, yet, it is all of these. It ranges over a variety of subjects — war, theatre, Hindu philosophy, or why Bengali Brahmins eat fish. It is certainly not idle gossip, as the participants are usually well informed and witty. But what is it if not fundamentally idle or unproductive?” this is what Ray has to say but there are several others even Amartya Sen who would differ from this opinion and state several instances in which addas have been productive. To put it simply it is believed that if you are a true Bengali you cannot be too busy to indulge in adda. When questioned about the unproductivity of adda Rotarian Gopinath Ghosh gives of a list of names like Sudhin Dutta, Satyajit Ray, Amartya Sen, Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sunil Gangopadhyay have all indulged in adda and they have not been idle men. Barry O’Brien in a column in The Telegraph, “An Eye On Calcutta” said “Unproductive it hasn’t been for me. Twenty years ago, a “meaningless” adda session with my cricket superior Mudar Patherya on which cricketers would make it to the Best Capricorn XI and which ones had played for more than one country, resulted in a leading publisher producing a book edited by us, entitled The Penguin Book of Cricket Lists. Nine years ago, an “aimless” adda with colleagues in a staff room, on legendary teachers and courageous students, resulted in The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence seeing the light of day.”
	It is said that an easy way to spot your Bengali friend is to find out his addakhana or thhek, i.e., the place of adda. It may be a street-side tea-stall, it may be the football-club or the local-club of the para or neighbourhood, it may be under the tree, the parar rowk, or just about anywhere - from your drawing room to the famous Coffee House of Calcutta. In fact, Nirad C. Chowdhury has dedicated one whole chapter in his Autobiography of an Unknown Indian on this Bengali phenomenon of adda. The famous Ghanada and Tenida of Bengali popular fiction are characters who are known for their art of adda. While Ghanada holds his adda sessions in his room on a terrace of a boys’ mess, Tenida joins the addas at street corners. Both of them spice up the sessions with tall tales about their addas. It should be noted here that one of the features of adda is the narration of tales of adventure, which are more often than not fabricated. In an adda the discussion is not just what happened at home, office or college, or who's going around with whom these days, but also very serious and far-fetched affairs ranging from the country's economic and political scenario to bilateral relations, from the latest in technology to the latest in football and cricket, from magic realism, ancient literature and little magazine to modern poetry, fusion music and jibonmukhi gaan and so on. Some of the famous places for adda are – 
1.	Coffee House (College Street )
2.	Nadan/Rabindrasadan premises, now even Rabindrasadan Metro station.
3.	Coffee House (Jadavpur)
4.	Academy of Fine Arts
5.	Rabindra Sarovar
Where there is adda, there is something to eat and drink and smoke, with occasional breaks to give you enough energy to engage in a lot of verbal duel, and to prolong the never-ending sessions. Fast and light snacks, such as shingara, kachuri, nimki, muri, chanachur and fried fish are the most delicious things that come with adda. But it's all incomplete without a cup of cha or tea, which is even more pleasurable when had in bhanrs from roadside stalls. In fact, certain restaurants in Calcutta have actually blossomed and are famous for the addas. 
Some of the famous restaurants for adda are:
1.	Dilkhusha Cabin on Mahatma Gandhi Road. Fish Cutlet and Mutton Chop are something this restaurant is famous for.
2.	Basanta cabin near Bethune College and Scottish Church College.
3.	'Paragon' was famous for it's numerous varieties of sharbat. People, young and old, still throng this place testing various types of sharbat and spend their time in endless discussions.
4.	In the south, Coffee House on the first floor of Basusree cinema hall, was a favourite haunt of film stars, directors, corporate bosses, lawyers, professors, to spend their time in adda. The large hall accommodated a large number of people. Sunday mornings remained completely house-full. Chicken Pakora, Prawn Pakora, Egg Pakora and Coffee are some of the favourites of this place.
5.	Bonophool Restaurant is another favourite place for adda in the Bhowanipore area. Old-timers recall that during the 60s and early 70s music stalwarts like Hemanta Mukhopadhya, Shyamal Mitra, filmstar Uttam Kumar, Asit Baran, and various other famous and not-so-famous spent their leisure here eating Moghlai Paratha and tea.
6.	Coffee House in Chittaranjan Avenue, House of Lords were witness to discussions on art forms and no-nonsense, with the likes of Satyajit Ray, Chidananda Dasgupta and Samaresh Bose 
7.	And of course the Coffee House in College Street.
Certain people are of the view that restaurant centric addas grew due to the need of constant supply of food. It became easier to prolong the adda sessions in restaurants because supply of light snacks did not pose a problem. Had the adda would have taken place in a house the responsibility for preparing the foods and teas had to be borne by the ladies of the house. Hence, for the sake of convenience, adda at restaurants became so popular. 
However, addas that took place in living rooms or in front of houses were also as famous as these in restaurants. Addas can be differentiated into a few types depending on the place and the people who were a part of it. Though it is true that addas have no rule but there seems to be an unwritten law as to who could be a part of which adda. Addas that prevalent in Calcutta may be broadly classified into two categories – baithaki and the rowak addas. The baithaki addas were those, which took place in the living rooms of families like the Mullicks, Lahas and Seals. These generally had the master of the house presiding over the sessions. Food was constantly provided for by the women of the household. Song, dance, poetry recital were a part of it. It started from the evening and would continue till late night. Anyone could come in at anytime and leave at anytime discussions were spontaneous and varied. No fixed topic, no dress code, no time limit. Once the famous singer Ramkumar Chattopadhyay had narrated a very interesting experience. He had said that he would often go to the Laha household and the gatekeeper would take his watch before entering and would return it when he was leaving. After few such instances he had asked Laha babu as to why was this done and the reply he got was. “A watch has no place in adda. Adda has no time limit you cannot be a part of adda if you are conscious of time”. Gradually these addas have become extinct but certain organisations, like the Calcutta Club, are trying to revive this tradition. Pankaj Shaha a Director of Doordarshan is credited for starting this organized baithaki addas from the mid 70’s. Shutanuti Parishad had organized a formal adda as part of its celebrations of Calcutta's 300th birthday. Since then, Shutanuti Parishad has been holding such addas at various places in Calcutta with celebrities from all walks of life gracing these addas. However, not many people approve of this because they feel that it is going against the grain of actual adda. They question how can an adda be organized? Therefore, there is a tendency to feel nostalgic about this lost culture. While on one Calcuttans mourn at the loss of this baithaki adda on the other they do not seem to be much perturbed at the disappearance of rowk adda. Rather it seems they would happily give it up.
Before moving on to why the disappearance of rowk adda is not regretted by Calcuttans, it is necessary to first understand what does rowk adda mean. It is often said that a traditional house in North Calcutta is not complete until it has a chhad (terrace), uthon (inner courtyard) and rowk. Rowk is the entrance of the house, which is like a portico with a flight of steps and raised platform like structures on both the sides of the stairs. It is in this area that people of the neighbourhood gather for adda sessions. It should be noted that rowk adda is a typical Calcutta, more predominantly a North Calcutta phenomenon. This again this architectural element is a peculiarity of this place. Thus, the addas, which take place on the rowks, are labeled as rowk addas. However, this culture, as mentioned before is fast disappearing and practically no effort is being done to restore or preserve it. This is perhaps because the rowk has attained a negative connotation over the past three decades. In fact, a young man who is spotted indulging in rowk adda is branded as rowk baj, which is a derogatory label. He is viewed as a worthless, anti-social or as a loser. Hence, today’s youth prefers not to be seen on the rowk. It is interesting to note that earlier the same intelligentsia that has been mentioned above, indulged in rowk adda. Then why has this form of adda gradually vanishing and why has it attained a negative connotation? It cannot be said for certain what exactly is the reason for this but one can definitely speculate and that is the objective of this section of the paper. Some people believe that rowk adda has not died only the venue has shifted. Socio, political and economic changes in Bengal have changed its culture. With a more consumerist culture invading the society the venue has shifted from these street side addas to coffee shops, pubs and clubs. This reason could be one of the causes for the extinction of rowk adda but it does not seem to be the only reason but that does not explain why this genre of adda has been defamed. The speculation that is offered is that a space cannot be left in vacuum so when the intelligentsia deserted it, the anti-social occupied it and hence turned the space into a breeding place of nuisance. Another reason, which led to the extinction of this, could be the socio-political situation of Bengal in the 1970’s. With the emergence of the Naxalite movement in the early 70’s and the ruthless crushing of the movement by the government bred terror in the minds of people. Any young boy would be picked up by the police and thrown behind bars and even killed. This terror stopped the youth from assembling freely in a public space like the rowk. In fact, the rowk became a place synonymous with fear. Apart from the fear the 70’s was also an era of depression and unemployment in Bengal a situation that lingered through the 80’s and spilled over to the 90’s. It was a time, which saw a whole section of youth without any means of livelihood. This gave rise to a frustration among them. Without anything to do these young men would wile away there time sitting on the rowk and indulging in adda. And as expected their frustration forced them into anti-social activities. In my opinion it is from this that the space acquired a negative connotation. Another reason that could have caused the disappearance of the rowk adda is the disappearance of the geographical space – the rowk itself. With time the socio, economic and political scenario of Calcutta has undergone quite a change. North Calcutta was a place that was inhabited by traditional Bengali joint families. However, gradually these families have broken down. Their traditional houses have either dilapidated or been sold or partitioned. As a result the architectural feature of the rowk itself has vanished. Further the area is no longer a Bengali dominated area. These families have moved away and there has also been a mass exodus of the Bengali youth from the city to other metropolitans or abroad. Thus, with the disappearance of the space and its occupants the phenomenon has also gradually worn away. However, it is still not dead. Even today if one takes a walk down the narrow lanes of Shyambazar or Baghbazar, especially on a holiday, one is sure to notice a group of people crowded near a roadside tea stall or in front of a house and discussing to their heart’s content any and every issue that they can think off. It is amazing to note that the latest sensations in Calcutta are the two new shopping malls. Well malls are a latest craze all over the country but what is amazing about Calcutta is that the Calcuttans unlike the others do not enjoy shopping or strolling inside the malls. Rather what they do is sit outside the malls on the steps, which perhaps in some way reminiscent of the good old rowks, and chat! 
On speculating this phenomenon one realizes that it is not for nothing that non-Bengalis joke about the Bengalis saying that Bengalis suffer from verbal diarrhoea. The discussion so far might have hinted that the adda is the pejorative of the men but it is not so. There is equally effective, if not more, female counterpart. In the earlier times women would gather in the afternoons in their house to have their own sessions, which would be pepped up by a constant supply of pans. These days however, there are no different set ups of adda. With changing times men and women participate in it together and with equal enthusiasm. Thus we see adda is a pan-Bengali phenomenon. And it is impossible to reason why it is so. Why do the Bengalis need to talk so much? It also interesting to note that a habit that is looked down upon others by a waste of time is taken by Bengalis as a part of their cultural heritage. In fact, Bengalis are proud of it and are making an effort to revive it, websites on Calcutta or Bengal mention adda as an essential feature of Bengali culture. Again one cannot give definitive reasons for this but merely speculate. Perhaps as I have mentioned before, because it serves the twin purpose of food and travel. Again adda especially baithaki adaa, also provides a platform for discussing and nurturing other Bengali cultures like music, art, literature etc. so by reviving adda one can revive and nurture every other form of culture via it.   









-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20060407/a48cb733/attachment.html