The word adda exists in other Indian languages, but without its unique Bengali connotations. it is a long talking session, commonly of a recurrent sort among friends or co-activists. It is not simply conversation, or discussion, or debate, or gossip; and yet it is all these. It ranges over a variety of subjects; war theatre, or Hindu philosophy, or why Bengali Brahmins eat fish. The adda is not a club. We claim addas existed before the British invented the club. Unlike the latter, the adda survives because it is disorganized and has no rules. It has no office bearers, no dress regulations, no agenda and no fees. The origin of the adda seems to lie in the village gathering at day's end at the chandimandap, the venue of rustic meetings and festivals. Here under the sway of the village elders, problems were discussed, sometime solved and more often aggravated. The principal motive at this stage does appear to have been gossip.

The roark sometimes referred to, as rock is a flat pedestal usually on two sides of a staircase leading into a house off the street. Most old Calcutta houses had these. In their absence, the steps itself served the purpose. What happens is that every evening, the same set of people from the para (locality) meet there to sit and adda. In South Calcutta's Gariahat, a famous roark was the steps of UCO Bank. People who met everyday at UCO Bank today constitute an 'Old Boy Network'. The members were from different age groups, since there were new members added every year. But the ties were strong.