It's been years since I just walked around a street in Calcutta. You are either driving through or, even if you do happen to walk, it's because you are heading for a destination - a shop or an office or a friend's home. But a relaxed, almost aimless walk, hasn't happened in a long time.

Actually, it wasn't quite aimless. I was on Justice Chandra Madhav Road in Bhowanipore to witness an enactment of a situation conceived by writer Amit Chaudhuri wearing his new hat as the prime mover of the Calcutta Architectural Legacies (CAL). The audience included Atul Dodiya, the highly acclaimed artist, and a dozen others who have been supporting the fledgling initiative over the past nine months.

This street event was one in a multipronged approach that CAL has designed with the purpose of drawing attention to the para - as distinct from heritage buildings - so that the apparently relentless destruction of the city's character is stopped and reversed.

Two actors, Amlan Chaudhuri and Jayati Chakravarty, did a superb improvisation of life on a para street - a quick cup of tea from the tea vendor, a short chat with a patient waiting outside a clinic, a reassuring "allzwell" to a startled driver sleeping under a tree.

All of this was meant to draw the curiosity of others on the street and to allow the buildings and the street scenes to sink into the consciousness of the audience. With refreshingly natural style, Amlan and Jayati played out a couple deep in constant chatter and yet relaxed enough to enjoy sitting on the steps of an old building licking an ice stick. A sudden disagreement leads to their going separate ways until they find each other again in the shade of a beautiful house undergoing restoration.

Brief as it was, the manner in which Amit Chaudhuri had crafted the interactions allowed the audience to linger at various spots on the street. And when Jayati disappeared for a while, we were forced to look for her and in looking out for her we had time to absorb what the para was about.

This was meant to be an experiment and it turned out to be a courageous and innovative one.

The idea of doing something in a para that didn't come from outside - such as an art installation - but that used the people and streets and buildings of the para itself as the art seemed to resonate with the people on the street.

Even though there were not too many people on the street, the conversations that the actors were able to strike with the few who were around showed that there are chords waiting to be touched. And the furious clicking of cameras by the audience that followed the actors showed that, given the chance, the scenes and buildings of an otherwise disregarded part of the city are able to generate a lot of appreciation.

CAL's work has only just begun. The early signs are encouraging and the message is loud and clear - if we want to save the city's character, we have to walk our streets.