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One of the four great urban centres of India, CALCUTTA is to its proud citizens the equal of any city in the country in charm, variety and interest. Like Mumbai and Chennai, it is not an ancient city; its roots lie in the European expansion of the seventeenth century. The showpiece capital of the British Raj, this was the greatest colonial city of the Orient. Descendants of the fortune-seekers who flocked from across the globe to participate in Calcutta's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century trading boom remain conspicuous in its cosmopolitan blend of communities. Despite this, there has been a recent rise in Bengali nationalism, which has resulted in the renaming of the city as KOLKATA - the Bengali pronunciation and official new name - which has yet to be universally embraced.

Since Indian Independence mass migrations of dispossessed refugees, occasioned by twentieth-century upheavals within the subcontinent, have tested the city's infrastructure to the limit. The resultant suffering - and the work of Mother Teresa in drawing attention to its most pathetic victims - has given Calcutta a reputation for poverty that its residents consider ill-founded. They argue that the city's problems are no longer as acute as those of Mumbai or other cities across the world, and that the slum scenes familiar from the book and film City of Joy are distortions of the truth. In fact, though Calcutta's mighty Victorian buildings lie peeling and decaying, and its avenues have long been choked by its inability to expand any further, Calcutta exudes a warmth that leaves few visitors unmoved. The opening of India's first underground system in 1984 was seen as the first portent of a new economic beginning, but there is little denying that, over the years, the city has lost much ground to newly emerging commercial centres elsewhere in the country.

The Bengalis of Calcutta like to see themselves as the intelligentsia of India; a long-standing maxim states that "what Bengal does today, India will do tomorrow." This is a city where artistic endeavour is held in higher esteem than political and economic success, home to a multitude of galleries and huge Indian classical music festivals, with a thriving Bengali-language theatre scene and a tradition of cinema brought world renown by Satyajit Ray. Adding to the chaos and colour, Calcutta has a wonderful tradition of political posters and graffiti. Witty and flamboyant slogans compete with a forest of advertising hoardings to festoon every available surface.

Though Marxists may rule from the chief bastion of imperialism, the Writers Building , and the site of the notorious Black Hole of Calcutta, now obscured by the main post office, visitors still experience Calcutta first and foremost as a colonial city. Grand edifices in a profusion of styles include the imposing Victoria Memorial and the gothic St Paul's Cathedral , while the eclectic Indian Museum , one of the largest museums in Asia, ranges from natural history to art and archeology. Among numerous venerable Raj institutions to have survived are the racecourse, the polo ground, the reverence for cricket and several exclusive gentlemen's clubs.

In terms of climate , Calcutta is at its best during its short winter, when the daily maximum temperature hovers around 27°C, and the markets are filled with vegetables and flowers. Before the monsoons, the heat hangs unbearably heavy; the arrival of the rains in late June brings relief, but usually also heavy floods that turn the streets into a quagmire. After a brief period of post-monsoon heat, October and November are quite pleasant; this is the time of the city's biggest festival, Durga Puja .