Article Title: Aesthetic Kolkata is gradually metamorphosing itself to a city of gauche

Article Summary

The article at issue speaks of the ruin and decay of erstwhile glamour-city Kolkata, and the implications that change holds for the political ruler-ship in the state of West Bengal. A central shopping hub of Kolkata, New Market, has been used to try to encapsulate the changing landscape. New Market was built by British statesman Stuart Hogg when the British ruled India, as an one stop shop for everything the British elite could want to buy during their sojourn away from home. The Market housed fancy clothes, food and even cigars for the Brit folk, and during those times, inhabiting Kolkata used to be as glamorous as New Market was to shoppers. That has changed in the current times, through several decades after Indian independence, with West Bengal losing its place as an elite state in the country, an intellectual and industrial hotspot. Kolkata is now lackluster, lacks business funding for the upkeep of its decorated spots, and has conceded space to several states at the top of the country’s activity roster. There are many skeptics who say that the ruin of Bengal, like the ruin of New Market in it(by a fire) was deliberate and planned. However, that does little to help the issue of revamping and re-furnishing Bengal to its position of old charm, the efforts directed at which are failing, feels the author.