Hi Folks!! I haven’t
troubled you people with my writing for quite some time. For this trouble free
period, you people should thank my company (workplace, obviously), for keeping
me busy, six days a week and a small courtesy to my laziness, too. But I should
not be complaining much because, if not for my company, I wouldn’t be writing
this post at all. Yes, it is my take on Kolkata, the place where I have lived
(and living) for exactly one year. I came here on March 05, 2011 and it has
been a kind of rollercoaster experience for me since then.
By
December 2010, I got placed in a small company(the existence of which I came to
know only the day before my interview), and was whisked away from South India,
all the way to the Eastern part of it- away from all my friends and family.
Well it might sound like a totally normal scenario (punctuated with ‘duh’) and
not worth the fuss. But for a guy like me, who has spent his entire life time
in South India, it was, well kind of, brusque. With a sense of loss and low on
morale, I came to Kolkata. But after one year, I now think that Kolkata is the
best thing that ever could have happened to me.
Let me
start with my first tryst with Kolkata- the place where I live, called SaltLake City, a planned city at the peripheral of (I should be saying a part of)
Kolkata. Since it is a planned place, almost all the streets in my block look
the same and so it took me some days to correctly identify the street where I
live in. Though I had to stay in a dingy PG (with a cheating owner) at first, I
later shifted to a house along with my friends. It is an area teeming with rich
people and abundant with big houses. Uproot any house from my street, place it
on a sea shore and add a swimming pool to it, it’ll make a perfect beach house.
But all the houses are kind of isolated (not literally, though). I swear that
people at my neighboring house neither know my name, in fact, nor can they
identify me as their neighbor -the ultimate contrary of being ‘nosy neighbors’.
For the first two or three months, my picturization of Kolkata was
monochromatic; started with Salt Lake City and ended there itself with its rich
lot. I did not hate it, but I did not like it either.
May be
along with the change in regime (from CPI to Mamata didi’s hands) came the
change in my attitude and liking, too. Later one fine weekend, I happened to
get into the Kolkata city, the heart of it and that is the moment I added splash
of colours to my picturization of Kolkata. It has all kind of places, that
every other Metro city in India has- temples,restaurants, malls, pubs, markets,
stadiums and, basically, all the colours in the spectrum- the red one too and
the darkest ones too(haven’t you been hearing things in the news, lately ?).
But what I like the most is the black and white part of it- vintage,
untransformed places. It is, as if most parts of the city, forgot to grow along
with time. Want some proof?
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| Majestic, as Always !! |
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| Don't know how long it is goin to be functional !! |
Howrah
Bridge (but there is a Sexy modern day counterpart called VidyaSagar Setu, ahem Biddhasagar Setu, like ppl here say), Trams (the only city in India where it is still operational), British
period buildings (there are hella lot of them), taxis (have stayed yellow for
almost 8 decades), wooden buses (trust me), houses of middle class people in
the city (who, I think, still feel it is absolutely unnecessary to refurbish)
and above all the lifestyle of poor people (see it yourself when you come here)
- abiding by the laws of Inertia. Clearly, a non-budging city, eh?
Maybe
the government also thinks it is better to leave the heart untouched, I guess(I
kinda like it). Full fledged construction works on apartments and stuff (in
short, houses for people who are gonna migrate to Kolkata in near future) are
going on in the outskirts of the city, called NewTown. Please don’t think that
Kolkata’s heart is all black and white (though most parts of it are). Some places,
you might very well feel that, belong to some other nation – Park Street, for
instance. It is the ultimate destination for night life at Kolkata and
invariably, people throng to it, in large numbers. And my other favourite street is College Street, the largest array(matrix, probably) of bookshops in Asia, I guess..There are lot of other places, too, which for the sake of brevity and good content, I leave it to
other sites. But one last non-living thing, that deserves to be mentioned is
Metro Railway, at Kolkata. Though not as modern as that of Bangalore and Delhi, I like it
very much. After, getting used to the city (both Salt Lake and the heart), it
is very hard not to like it.. Truly colorful.
And
then came the Durga Puja, which honestly is majestic, and rightly deserved a
post for itself. I soon started seeing colours which only some weird insects in
the African wild jungle can see. Closely following Durga Puja, was the winter
at Kolkata. Though not as cold as Delhi, it certainly is a lot colder than that
of Tamil Nadu, and exactly the way winter should be. If the winter doesn’t make
you fall in love with Kolkata, my post certainly will not.
I’m not
comparing this city with others, I’m not saying this is the best metro (I have
seen only three so far).In fact I’m not in the arguing mode at all. All I’m
saying is, I happen to be here, and fortunately or unfortunately, I like it
very much. This city made me feel that I’m a man firm on my own feet., maybe
that is why like it very much. The reasons are not so important, when their
culmination is so beautiful and colorful. You still don’t agree with me? See
for yourself, how vibrantly colorful Kolkata is.
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| Freakishly colourful isn't it?? |
Clearly, Holi is also a part of my love affair. What say??
Oh..
Kolkata is famous for sweets and really tasty they are. But the sad part is,
things which are supposed to be spicy are also sweet (Biryani, for instance).
But kind of got used to it. And so is Bengali, very sweet (unless if it is from
a loud decibeled woman). Right now I’m trying my best to learn it.
Lot of
great people have lived here and lot of people have said a lot about this place
(hehe.. almost all the versions are better than mine). But, the best way to feel this city is,
to be here. May be for a span of a week or 10 days and the best time according
to me is during Durga puja. You will definitely enjoy yourself. If you want to see a
preview of the city, do watch the film Kahaani .
I hope they will show the Kolkata in good light, as it is set in this city at
the time of Durga Puja.
And
here we go. The culmination ritual.. Thanks for reading it, with patience. Abar
dekha hobe, with my next post. Bye, and please thank Google for the pictures (last one is mine, though). Ciao..
