ZAKARIA STREET, CHITPUR
Kolkata’s erstwhile design was, in one particular way, stark in its brutal simplicity. The city was
divided into two halves — ‘White Town’, where the white colonisers lived and worked, and ‘Black
Town’, where Bengalis lived. This binary does no justice to the actual diversity of the city’s
populace, filled as it was (and continues to be) with communities from all over India and beyond.
Zakaria Street in Chitpur, of the former ‘Black Town’, is a heady mix of history, architecture and
culinary delights in the form of the city’s most delicious Mughlai fare, especially popular during
Ramzan. It is said that each eatery boasts a secret family recipe, which has been passed down
through the ages but is never revealed to the passing stranger.
The city’s biggest, most beautiful mosque, Nakhoda Masjid, looms over Zakaria Street. Try
also to locate Salim Manzil on Chitpur Road, where the celebrated courtesan and gramophone
star Gauhar Jaan once lived.