We who live in Calcutta are quite used to it. When we walk down the city roads, we perhaps discover that a little book store has popped up on a street corner or a small coffee shop has suddenly appeared on a neighborhood sidewalk. It is a happy serendipity, no doubt. But it hardly surprises us. Bengalis, arguably, may not be known for their razor sharp business acumen but when it comes to creative enterprise, they can, inarguably, give any cutthroat competitor a run for his or her money. Their city is not known as the “cultural capital of the country” for nothing.

And so when the Bengali New Year comes around, we expect an additional burst of creative energy with cultural activities galore. Family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances extend invitations to all manner of fresh ventures. Let me mention two which stand out not because of what they are launching this new year but because of the quaintness of the very venture itself.

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The first one is a book shop located in South Calcutta’s Lake Market area. It is called “Read Bengali Bookstore” and anyone taking a stroll along the sidewalks at the crossing of Bompass Road and Sardar Shankar Road will immediately notice it. Looking like a little book bazaar from a fantasy fictional film, passersby are drawn in as though by an invisible magnetic pull. One asks for the owner and expects an old man or woman from another era to turn up from amidst the rows and rows of tomes. But it turns out that Pritam Sengupta, who started the book store in 2018 after about a decade of working as a distributor of English books, is not at all ancient. For five years, since 2013, the young man had been displaying the titles he was selling as a distributor on his Facebook page.  “The demand was so high for the books and there were so many queries about them that I thought only opening a physical, down-to-earth, store where people could come and browse and only then buy was the answer,” he says. The sales shot through the roof and he decided to expand the creative pursuit to include other products … including accessories like bags and “batuas” (a round sack-shaped purse), cards and collectibles, T-shirts displaying quotes and messages and even tea and tasty snacks. On the occasion of the Bengali New Year, the shop has planned different activities. These include exhibiting select books and selling them at discounted prices; holding a T-shirt fair or mela where people can choose from a range of colorful clothes with vibrant visuals (which is now on but will end before D-day) and an “adda” with long lost authors and artists, among other activities.

The other creative enterprise that has come up in the corner of Calcutta is a one-stop, so-to-speak, musical centre….which is both a school and a studio. Former journalist Partha Kirtaniya, who has a penchant and passion for all things musical (the word ‘kirtan’ is after all embedded in his name), first started the school in 2022, which taught, other than vocal music, guitar, piano, drums, tabla, sarod, keyboards, mouthorgan, flute and violin. Located at Haltu in South Kolkata’s Kasba, Musical Doors, as the school is called, has since also become a studio for audio and video recordings as well as a soundproof practice pad, called Jampad, for musicians and performers. “For Poila Boishakh we have a very special offering for the people of Bengal,” says Kirtaniya. “We are launching a music video which is slightly satirical in keeping with the Bengalis’ known sense of humour. The song, called “Dewal er o aachhey kaan” (walls have ears too) based on the Bengali proverb, seeks to go on a discovery journey about its veracity. The song is penned by the renowned, not to mention, versatile lyricist, composer and musician, Rajkumar Sengupta and is sung by famous singer, Shilajit Majumdar and stars popular actress Rimjhim Mitra. We think it’s a great gift for the Bengali listeners and viewers this new year.”

Almost every nook and corner of our city Calcutta, the culture capital of the country, is hiding a gem or two. I thought I’ll ferret out a couple of them and bring them to the fore. The auspicious day of Poila Boishakh, the first day of the first month of the Bengali calendar is after all only a day or two away.