Walking through corridors, in and out of splendid rooms and past mantelpieces, I didn’t realise that I was actually travelling through time during the delightful heritage walk at The Lalit Kolkata. Splendid being an understatement, the hotel is every bit of an architectural marvel, which combines the past and the present, just precisely to attain perfection!
After having a wholesome lunch that comprised of an array of delicacies, and a plethora of my favourite Bengali desserts, we started off for the walk. I was accompanied by a member of their servile staff, who showed me around the entire hotel, listing out details of each and every place we visited and everything that we saw. The walk started with an archaic piano that is more than 200 years old.However, the piano outshone the marvels of architectonics that the room exhibited with its old world charm which was extremely fascinating.
The headquarters of The East India Company is something that has been abstract to every child since 7th grade during which we read about it, and the same was true for me, until I saw it for myself. On an old freshly painted building, a board hung bearing the words, ‘The East Indian’. I could sense my history lessons materialising to reality, truly amazing it was! Next we walked into a large, open space that housed several different cages; my guide told me that the cages were used for performing cabaret dances in older times. I was in total awe of the way in which they had blended the old and the new to bring out the best of the place. Wooden planks that earlier served as the flooring material had been put together, covered with glass slabs and were turned into tables. Then we took a walk down memory lane to the oldest bakery in Asia, which serves sumptuous desserts and cakes. A part of the hotel, the setting of the bakery is picturesque, with bricked walls for a rustic charm of 1873, the year the bakery came into existence. I was told that one of the walls was left untouched, so now you know what I mean by the old world charm!
Its funny how I never went to The lalit kolkata before. I am going back aganin and again for the old world charm. Overall, it was quite an experience as I have never really taken a heritage walk inside a hotel. Definitely a unique concept and I’d recommend the Heritage Walk to all the visitors to truly admire the beauty and grandeur of The Lalit, Kolkata.
1 Comment