My current tryst with Kolkata

It's easier to get kebabs in Kolkata than mangsho and luchi; paneer is more mainstay than shukto. Bengali biryani might be fine but most places serve oily rolls in the name of kathis

I knew Kolkata, when it was still Calcutta, or at least the parts that mattered most, reasonably well — though that was ages ago. Intermittent work trips over the decades made no allowance for nostalgia. No jaunts to New Market, pre- or post the fire, or to Nahoum for plum cake and stick-jaws; no scrounging for second-hand books on Free School Street, or seeking out antiques at the Russell Exchange; no trying on handcrafted shoes at the Chinese shoe shops on Park Street; no guilty pleasures in a “family room” in a Chinese dive with a girlfriend. 

Recent trips have