Slice of Bengal on New Town wall: Toast to culture in Sankalpa 2 mural
Telegraph | 17 April 2026
Drive down Major Arterial Road from Action Area 1 as Biswa Bangla Gate approaches and your attention will be riveted by a work of art to the left. The facade of one of the highrises, Sankalpa 2, has come alive with a black and white collage of words and sketches, invoking things and people that Calcutta is loved for. And the word is that the wall will subsequently be illuminated, to make the wall stand out amid the concrete jungle even after sunset.
Feluda to football
The mural is a tribute to Calcutta — Satyajit Ray and his Feluda-Bhooter Raja; the other sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi, a Saradindu Bandyopadhyay creation, Netaji, football with the archrivals Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, a yellow Ambassador taxi (the only touch of colour in the illustrations)…
If there is Vidysagar Setu, there is also a slice of New Town represented in Biswa Bangla Gate; in between, there is Victoria Memorial and Nandan. The words, Joy Ma Durga next to a trinayan motif towers atop. Across a glass slit, there is another vertical strip of space with cricket and Coffee House, theatre and book fair.
There is Shiva and Ganesh-janani Parvati fused together in halves as Ardhanarishwar, at right angles to this wall. This is one single illustration, 46ft high, in colour.
“Our buildings were being repaired and painted. The structure is our club house and we noticed that it has a 50ftx14ft blank facade which is visible from the main road. Examples of public art are close at hand to get inspired from — the walls of the underpass which are illustrated and alpona painted on the road at the crossing, though the latter has largely got erased over time,” said Sourav Bhowmik, who is on the complex’s Board of Members.
The complex also has a track record of getting its children to draw alpona and pictures on the ring road before Durga puja in 2021.
“But this time, we decided on seeking professional help. Since it involved substantial cost, we got the proposal approved by our general body. Our president Kaushik Sarkar provided contacts of an artist,” said secretary of Sankalpa 2 Apartment Owners’ Association, Abhijeet Kundu. A proposal mooted in 2024 finally started getting executed just before Dol this year. “It took the artist, Subho Debnath, about a month to finish.”
There are plans to illuminate the wall by monsoon, he said.
Residents are happy to have their complex stand out in such an aesthetic way. “Our city is culturally rich and our complex too houses a diverse community. We wanted to showcase that richness and diversity. It would be nice if other complexes follow our example,” said Sanjib Harchowdhury, who moved into New Town in end-2022.