Kolkata

Simultaneously noble and squalid, cultured and desperate, Kolkata is a daily festival of human existence. And it's all played out before your very eyes on teeming streets where not an inch of space is wasted. By its old spelling, Calcutta, India's second-biggest city conjures up images of human suffering to most Westerners. But Bengalis have long been infuriated by one-sided depictions of their vibrant capital. Kolkata is locally regarded as the intellectual and cultural capital of the nation. Several of India's great 19th- and 20th-century heroes were Kolkatans, including guru-philosopher Ramakrishna, Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore and celebrated film director Satyajit Ray. Dozens of venues showcase Bengali dance, poetry, art, music, film and theatre. And while poverty certainly remains in-your-face, the dapper Bengali gentry continue to frequent grand old gentlemen's clubs, back horses at the Calcutta Racetrack and play soothing rounds of golf at some of India's finest courses.

One of the city's many, many traffic jams

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Kolkata Weather

Kolkata positively bakes from April to June, so the arrival of the cooling monsoon rains in mid-June can feel like a blessing. The feeling doesn't last - for the next three months, rain buckets down on Kolkata like it was going out of fashion, swelling the Hooghly and flooding the streets. From October through to February the rains slow and temperatures drop back down to bearable levels. It is never cold in Kolkata - the temperature rarely drops below 15慢 (59慚), and often soars above 35慢 (95慚).

Month	Temp (°C)	Rainfall (mm)	Humidity (%)	Sunshine (hours)
Jan	13 - 27	10		8
Feb	15 - 29	31		9
Mar	21 - 34	36		9
Apr	24 - 36	43		9
May	25 - 36	140		8
Jun	26 - 33	297		5
Jul	26 - 32	325		4
Aug	26 - 32	328		4
Sep	26 - 32	252		5
Oct	24 - 32	114		7
Nov	18 - 29	20		8
Dec	13 - 26	5		8