An adda (Bengali: আড্ডা) is a 'conversation' among members, who were originally of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has democratized in modern times.[1]
Adda was incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004.
The Indian adda has shades of meaning attached to different languages:
- In Hindi, adda is a noun, 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, adda is both a standalone noun and a noun in a noun-verb 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 verb form means informal conversation among a group of people, often for hours on end, and usually accompanied by food.[2]
In 2011, filmmakers Surjo Deb and Ranjan Palit made a documentary on the subject.[3] The film, Adda: Calcutta, Kolkata has been screened at several festivals around the globe and won the Golden Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival 2012.[4][5][6]