An Instagram handle with an album of old-world Kolkata architecture

Manish Golder has a bad throat, but he chooses to ignore the nagging irritation; because the topic under discussion is Kolkata, his favourite city in the world—and it’s one he cannot stop talking about. “Recently, I met a Scottish conservationist who was involved in restoring old houses in Yangon in Burma [Myanmar]. Interestingly, the architecture of houses there and in Kolkata is very similar [the British had a dominating influence on both the places at the same time]. The man told me how he had to bring in masons from Scotland to Burma to work with lime and mortar, which were popular colonial-era construction materials. It is the same in Kolkata—we don’t have masons anymore who know how to work with lime and mortar or on red oxide floors.”

Six years ago, Golder, who runs a digital production agency, got together with his friends, photographer Siddharth Hajra and graphic designer Sayan Dutta, to capture the beauty of old houses and establishments in Kolkata on their mobile phones: “The three of us have been photographing and roaming the streets of Kolkata over the years, not always with an agenda. It’s a city which should be experienced intimately through long strolls that almost always throw up surprises every now and then.”

“We prefer to focus more on old homes that appear to be of a certain vintage than on old monuments with certified heritage status,” says Golder. Their Insta account, a pure visual feast, offers very little in the way of any reference to origins or history. “We rarely ever go in and talk to the homeowners. We stand in a discreet spot on the opposite pavement and take a picture.” Though it is easy to believe that these structures don’t stand a chance of survival against the wave of boxy concrete towers waiting to elbow them out, there are stories of hope and optimism too. For example, a man who owns an old bungalow has converted it into an Airbnb residence. Golder agrees that loud debates on conservation/restoration are necessary, but feels dispirited that amid all that noise, no effort is taken by anyone to help elderly homeowners with repairs.

The pictures on @calcuttahouses are simple wide shots of a past that you would want to hug close. Tucked among the many images is one of an old couple enjoying a cup of evening tea seated in a room with mosaic floors, in their 150-year-old house on Harish Mukherjee Road. It was taken a few days before the house was brought down. It is more than an image captured for posterity; it is emblematic of that proverbial thorn in the rose that can leave you bleeding. And in this case, yearning for a vanishing era.