The streets of North Kolkata are irresistibly attractive to those who love to capture colour, texture, and moments. The city’s traditional stronghold lies in the streets of north Kolkata, known for its alleys and lanes, with some impressive architecture springing surprises on the wanderer.
Appayan Mondal is a student as well as an avid photographer. His love for the unique flavour of North Kolkata made him pen these few lines as well as share some of his clicks from his collection. This article is all about how we find our stimulus for creativity from different sources- it has a story to tell. Are you listening?
‘There are few people who have not clicked at least one photo in the alleys of north Calcutta.’
Colours. Hues. In our daily life we witness a variety of colours everywhere. We see the beautiful colours on the streets also. Mainly in North Kolkata colours and wall paintings or graffiti, play a significant role in describing the essence of the street and that is why the colourful streets and alleys are some of the most visited areas by Street and Documentary Photographers from all over the world.
There are few people who have not clicked at least one photo in the alleys of north Calcutta. The heritage buildings and their structures are really beautiful and eye catching. One can’t simply take one’s eyes off from those patterns, grills and vibrant colours.
Famous places of north Kolkata which are photographed mostly include SovabazarRajbari, Kumortuli, Sukia Street, Sovabazar’s lanes, Kumortulighat, Amherst Street, Bagbazaar, Pataldanga Street, Baithhakkhana, College Street, Bidhansarani, Moti Sil Street, Bankim Chatterjee Street, Gas Street, College Row and the famous Hatibagan market.
Colours of the City
The buildings of these areas are mainly from the British period and the architecture is simply marvellous. Red coloured buildings with green, ash or turquoise coloured windows while deep cobalt blue is on the door together make a colour riot. There are white, purple, yellow and many more colours too.
Purple walls and pinkish wooden handles of the doors soothe both your mind and eyes.
Most of the walls of north Kolkata have various paintings on them like colourful rhymes, gothic illustrations, drawings on political turmoil and cartoons,illustrations of various Bengali characters from famous literary works and many more. But these can only be found when you have entered the lanes and alleys off from the main clumsy hectic road filled with honks and horns.
Uniquely styled architecture
North Kolkata and the streets are such a bliss to explore. Differently styled ceilings and boundary walls with green, red, blue, white, ash, vermillion, violet colours make an impact upon the photographer for sure. Imagine a green door with a red post-box next to it while the wall is blue! Just amazing! One can’t simply ignore these colours on the streets. So in Kolkata if anyone wishes to explore the coloursand shades on the streets; these will tempt the person to travel through them.
Once someone enters the SovabazarRajbari the textures and the bright white colour is pleasing enough to calm you down. This is one of best Durga Puja venues of whole of West Bengal. Tourists and travellers from all o’er the world come here to photograph the essence, pomp and grandeur of Durga Puja.
The buildings of Sukia Street, Gas street and Pataldanga are structured in the utmost serene way. The upper parts of these buildings hold the coloursin lightershades than the lower parts. This is what we call the way of making!
On the streets there are various types of lampposts that are colouredin black or burnt sienna. In the evening when the typical Kolkata yellow lights are on, the lights create a stunning impact with the colours of lampposts and streets. Dark-coloured pitch streets seem to glow with the yellow, blue, red neon. The night is colourful too. Bi-coloured neon signs on the main roads and dimmed yellow lights on the alleys create an amazing lattice of light and shade; gloomy and dazzling at the same time.
So all through the day and night north Kolkata streets are always filled with colours and their impact, which surely create an everlasting effect on the photographers’ minds. Again and again they are bound to explore north Kolkata and her colours!
That was quite a journey of colours through the narrow lanes of Old Kolkata. Every city has its charm and appeal- Kolkata offers different flavours to different people. Appayan found his inspiration too, right on the streets of this city.
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