Mindboggling trades & feel the human tide

Narrow alleyways, narrower staircases stained by time, the smell of cooking spices and  industrial fragrances, porters with heavy loads on their heads clucking and shouting for you to make way, the sounds of the temple bells, the muezzins call to prayer and the tall pourings of the tea sellers are some of the things your senses will encounter here. 

Marwaris, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Biharis and many other people of India have made this their workplace, almost since the beginning of the city. The Whole Sale hub of Kolkata catering to not just the city but entire Eastern India along with markets in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar too. 

You will see mindboggling trades here with strange clusters of similar trades bunched together in pockets. So explore areas selling Weighing Scales, Spices, Ropes, Industrial tools, Balloons, Umbrellas, Combs, Lungi/Sarongs, Sarees and other clothes, Medicine, Gemstones, Dry Snacks, Party Décor, Electrical Items, Flags and Festoons, Flavour and Fragrances, Watches……..the list and variety is indeed mindboggling. You would surely never have imagined this and in the scale we are talking about. 

When it is one of Asia’s largest wholesale hubs, it automatically becomes a street food destination too serving the buyers, sellers, porters and other sundry intermediaries. Take you fill of wonderful Lassis, Sandwiches, Chaats, Sharbats, Littis, Phuchkas (golgappa/panipuri),  Mithais, Kachoris Dosas, Chillas and what not.  Especially for the vegetarians this is food heaven served fast and made affordable. 

But beating it all are the people. We recommend you to stand in a few corners and watch the people. The trader concentrates on updating his accounts while relaxing with his weight inclined on a bolster, or animatedly negotiating a deal the culmination of which may result in a final round of extra sweetened tea for both parties. The porter pulling/pushing the cart or bearing a heavy load on his head, eyes bulging and neck sinews throbbing with the weight, irreverently shouting at you to simply get out of his way. The ones however, not yet engaged would be found taking either a snooze atop their cart or basket, or bunched together playing a game of cards. The traffic policemen trying to get a semblance of order in the most complex of situations. The Buyers scuttling to whatever place is their immediate destination so that they can catch the earliest train or bust to their place of business after placing orders for their fares. Else you would find them taking a siesta in one of the roof top restaurants cum resting place. The touts looking forb easy preys. The food vendors, with an aura of authority and business that is common to all well endorsed chefs globally, proudly serving out their delicacies with deft and practiced hands. The temple priest calling you to put a tika (mark) on you temple for divine grace.

Time - 2 hours? Actually it flies so fast that we leave it to your discretion also at times.