Every autumn, as the monsoon gradually eases its watery onslaught on Bengal’s floodplains and the first whiffs of winter blossoms rend the tropical air, Kolkata erupts in a riotous splendour of festivity that begins with Durga Puja and extends all the way to Diwali. During this carnivalesque period of worship, even as most of the city’s residents are swept up in a giant wave of celebrations and ritual finery, a few silent types choose to walk away from the crowds and chaos and head for the central district of Kolkata, which — in all its mothballed quaintness — remains largely unaffected by the celebrations and mass frenzy. In the serpentine bylanes of Bara Bazaar, the sprawling greens of the Maidan, the (temporarily deserted) business district of BBD Bagh or the quieter end of Park Street, elegant structures and public areas — dating back to different periods over four centuries — stand as mute but graceful testimonies to Kolkata’s history. With the crowds having briefly flocked to the pandals, these historical points of interests beckon as quiet oases in the midst of revelry.

Anirban Mahapatra is a writer, film-maker and photojournalist based in Bangkok

Timeless repose: The interior of the Beth El Synagogue, founded in 1856, on Pollock Street in Bara Bazaar

Communion with the past: St John’s Church, founded in 1787, formerly the Anglican Cathedral of Calcutta

Snowy sentinel: A marble sculpture of a lion at the main entrance to the Victoria Memorial

Standing out: The tombstone of Asiatic Society founder William Jones (washed in pink) rises above other graves in the atmospheric South Park Street Cemetery

Silence, please: Gravestones at the Armenian Church of Nazareth (founded in 1707) in Bara Bazaar

Their highnesses: Visitors pose for selfies beside a marble sculpture of Queen Victoria, in the upper portals of the Indian Museum building

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Revelling in the outdoors: A horseman rides through the deserted Maidan grounds, with Victoria Memorial in the background, on a Puja morning