Why Kolkata, a city of manifold joys, is best enjoyed in the winter

The queues in Bow Barracks offer clinching evidence that word of Kolkata's star-spangled Christmas has spread far and wide

Kolkata is a surprising city, not physically prepossessing but somehow possessed with grace. Its mild winter is the best season in which to experience the city, its festive conviviality and the pleasures of its public spaces. Of course, Christmas is celebrated in Kolkata with a fervour unknown in most other Indian cities. The lights on Park Street, the city’s main commercial thoroughfare, are famous. The city authorities have taken the sensible decision of curbing traffic movement in the area because of the thousands of pedestrians who throng the streets to gawp at the lights and take in the festival at