Essential Bengali phrases

The standard respectful greeting, with palms together. Bengali is the language of the street and English works in professional life; using nomoshkar changes the register immediately.

How are you, formally. 'Kemon achho' for someone your own age or younger. Bengalis notice which one you use.

How much? The opening of every transaction at New Market, Gariahat and with any taxi that is not on a meter.

Your neighbourhood, in the strong sense — a defined social unit with its own club, its own Durga Puja and its own opinions about you. Kolkata organises itself in paras rather than postcodes.

Long, unhurried, unproductive conversation. Genuinely a cultural institution here, conducted over tea, and taken more seriously than the word 'chat' suggests.

The five-day autumn festival, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2021. The city stops entirely — do not plan a move, a lease or an office visit inside it.

A general strike. West Bengal's political culture produces them less often than it used to, but when one is called shops close and transport stops.

In Kolkata this is a loaded word. Tenants under the old rent-control regime hold flats at frozen rents and cannot practically be removed, which is why so much of the old city is beautiful and crumbling.

Kebab and onion rolled in a paratha, invented at Nizam's near New Market and now eaten across India. The original is still there.

Sweetened set yoghurt and syrup-soaked cheese spheres. Bengal won the geographical indication for Banglar Rosogolla in 2017 after a long dispute with Odisha, and people here will tell you about it.

112 is the national emergency number. 100 for police and 101 for fire still work and are more widely recognised locally.