Adda - Madhyamgram - Kolkata 20170527133538

An adda ( bn, আড্ডা) is a "conversation" among members, who were originally of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has democratized in modern times. ''Adda'' was incorporated into the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

in 2004. The Indian adda has shades of meaning attached to different languages: *In

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, adda is a

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

, with the nominal form of the word meaning the location or nest of a group or community. The etymology can be traced to the original meaning of the word, which means the "perching spot or perch for birds". *In

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, adda is both a standalone noun and a noun in a noun-

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

compound. The nominalization of the word has two senses — one being the Hindi sense, and the other being the place of ritual meeting and/or conversation of a group of people (i.e., a symposium). The

form means informal conversation among a group of people, often for hours at an end, and usually accompanied by food. In 2011, filmmakers Surjo Deb and

Ranjan Palit Ranjan is a name. 'Ran' means Battle and 'jan' means public, in olden days this name was given to generous kings who fight battles for the rights of people. Ranjan may also refer to: * Ranjan (actor) (1918–1983) (real name Ramanarayana Venkatara ...

made a documentary on the subject. The film, '' Adda: Calcutta, Kolkata'' has been screened at several festivals around the globe and won the

Golden Palm Award The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the

Mexico International Film Festival Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

2012.

References

{{Reflist Bengali culture Bengali words and phrases