Adda is the life-blood of the Bengali community. It is a quintessential aspect of Bengali culture. Bengalis are known for their uncanny propensity of spending endless hours in adda sessions. Wherever there are Bengalis, there's adda.
So what's adda? No it's not a food item. But, it's so much a part of the life of Bengalis that it wouldn't be wrong to say that a Bengali can hardly stay alive without it.
The closest English word that can describe the essence of adda is chat. Not the e-version, but the real one. It's a friendly, casual conversation at an informal gathering of like-minded people, who want to talk their hearts out as a means of relaxation during leisure hours.
However busy you are, if you're a true Bengali, you got to save some time for adda. An easy way to spot your Bengali friend is to find out his addakhana or thhek, i.e., the place of adda. It may be a street-side tea-stall, it may be the football-club or the local-club of the para or neighbourhood, it may be under the tree, the parar rock, or just about anywhere - from your drawing room to the famous Coffee House of Calcutta.
Let me give you an idea of the topics discussed in an adda. It's not just what happened at home, office or college, or who's going around with whom these days, but also very serious and far-fetched affairs ranging from the country's economic and political scenario to bilateral relations, from the latest in technology to the latest in football and cricket, from magic realism, ancient literature and little magazine to modern poetry, fusion music and jibonmukhi gaan…and so on.
Where there's adda, there's something to eat and drink and smoke, with occasional breaks to give you enough energy to engage in a lot of verbal duel, and to prolong the never-ending sessions. Fast and light snacks, such as shingara, kachuri, nimki, muri, chanachur and fried fish are the most delicious things that come with adda. But it's all incomplete without a cup of cha or tea.
Adda is "symptomatic of all that's wrong with Bengal and Bengalis". Adda is one reason why Bengalis are reluctant to leave their native place and why few productive developments happen in Bengal. But now a fast paced lifestyle, the television and the Internet are posing a threat to this innocuous indulgence.
Now there're organisations, like the Calcutta Club, that have become active to resuscitating and keeping this tradition alive and kicking. Sutanuti Parishad has been a pioneer in this field, organizing a formal adda as part of its celebrations of Calcutta's 300th birthday. Since then, Sutanuti has been holding such addas at various places in Calcutta with celebrities from all walks of life gracing these addas.
The latest happening in Calcutta's adda-circuit is CIMA Gallery’s adda club, which meets every Sunday. Club membership is restricted to a few and members have the opportunity to interact with Celebes like author Taslima Nasreen and painter Bikash Bhattacharya. Earlier this year, an adda organized by Aikataan at the Salt Lake Cultural Centre turned out to be a huge success.
But not all are lauding these formal addas. Noted author Buddhadeb Guha said in a newspaper interview that adda is not good for Bengalis, and it should not be glorified. Another literary egghead Dibyendu Palit feels that organized addas lack the spontaneity of the addas of Coffee House or elsewhere. Whatever one might say addas are more good than bad. And for Bengalis on both sides of the border, adda's going nowhere. It's here to stay!
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