An experience of Kolkata is incomplete if one hasn't visited the famed, yet lesser known Bow Barracks. Kolkatans have heard this name a lot but many don't seem to know but what this place exactly is.
Let us help you with that. Bow Barracks is a small locality in central Kolkata, just behind Bowbazar Police Station, which was a garrison's mess built for the army during World War I. Eighty percent of the families that live here are Anglo-Indians. The rows of red-brick buildings (each floor houses about two to four Anglo families) are a characteristic feature of Bow Barracks that almost take you back in time.
But the most special time to visit Bow Barracks is undoubtedly during Yuletide, when it looks magical. It is jokingly said that Bow Barracks is probably the only place where Santa comes in a rickshaw! From Christmas, up until New Years, the entire street is decked with fairy lights of different shapes hanging across the road and every house is flanked by strings of faint lights & tiny bulbs. During Christmas, the place transforms into a fairytale land.
The camaraderie almost reminds us of the imagery of the thoroughfare from James Joyce's short story The Araby. To summarise it, this is probably the best place to experience the boiling pot of culture that is Kolkata.