While the country, and the world, celebrated International Yoga Day with perfect postures being struck everywhere from Rajpath to Eiffel Tower, it was super Sunday in Calcutta as The Telegraph had much more in store — yoga for every age group, a treat for those with a sweet tooth, a concert and an evening of lip-smacking Chinese food along with a colourful lion dance

 

Morning to night, yoga was the buzzword. That eight-year-old Prithwish Chakraborty (right) is no stranger to yoga and was more than happy to wake up for an early-morning session at The Gateway Hotel is a sign that the times they are a-changin. Harsha Banthia’s yoga class was full of enthusiastic participants of all ages and the overcast view of the city from the rooftop set the mood to be meditative. Harsha took her class of amateurs through the basic yoga postures and sun salutations before moving on to ones that made most of them nervous. Prithwish was sporting enough to attempt his first headstand or shirshasana. The session ended with sound therapy that helped everyone relax. In the evening, youngsters training with Healthy Billions (above) demonstrated the flexibility that yoga can help achieve at the International Yoga Day, in association with t2. Hena Nafis shared her tips on what an ideal diet should be. Some of Calcutta’s well-known personalities came away a little wiser, and one hopes healthier, after the interactive session at Taj Bengal

 

 

 

 

A balmy evening saw Calcutta come together at Tiretta Bazar to celebrate the summer solstice at the Kolkata Dragon Boat Festival, in association with t2. A Chinese tradition, the festival saw a merry crowd dig into steaming plates of momo and siu mai as they waited for the highlight of the evening — the traditional lion dance. As four mighty lions battled and danced to heavy drumbeats, everyone cheered them on. “I have never seen Tiretta Bazar so dressed up — the festival was amazing, the food was delicious. The fried chicken was better than I’ve tasted anywhere else,” grinned Rohit Paul, creative executive with a social media firm. “This is the first time we are celebrating the festival in our city and the response has been tremendous. Next time around we plan to make it bigger — probably hold it near the riverside and have actual dragon boats,” said Maria Fernandes, the 
vice-chairperson of the state minorities commission and one of the organisers

Varun Saraf and his two-and-half-year-old son were among the 60,000-odd people who braved the rain for some sweet indulgence at the Dessert Festival presented by City Centre Salt Lake and t2, a part of the mall’s 11th anniversary bash. It was a perfect Father’s Day date as little Yatharth shared his favourite waffles with daddy Varun. “His favourite dessert is vanilla ice cream, which is why we chose the waffle. He loves to eat sweets,” said the proud papa

The crowd-pullers wowed fans. But the tiny tots won hearts and how! On World Music Day, around 500 schoolchildren took the Nazrul Mancha stage and sang Jana Gana Mana as part of the World Music Day Concert, with t2. Presented by music director duo Sourendro Mullick and Soumyojit Das, the gig also saw Jeet Gannguli, Usha Uthup and Kavita Krishnamurti belting out one hit after another. “I’m fortunate to be celebrating World Music Day in Calcutta. Please give a big round of applause to the spirit of the Calcuttans,” said the Mumbai-based Gannguli, who also performed the hit Hamari adhuri kahani to rousing applause

 

Text by Arindam Chatterjee, Ramona Sen, Deborima Ganguly and Riddhima Khanna; pictures by Rashbehari Das, Sayantan Ghosh, Anindya Shankar Ray and Shuvo Roychaudhury