The City of Joy....

First of all, I apologise for the screwed up sequence of posts.. but I felt that my lovely trip to Calcutta, where my dimensions changed from that of a rugby ball to that of a football, deserved a post...

Well, after 2 long years I finally visited my hometown for a fortnight. As the Captain of the aircraft told us "Fasten your seatbelts, we are about to land", I looked out to see the twinkling lights of the city. It was a beautiful sight. I tried to trace patterns with those lights and the view just mesmerised me as we approached the airport. Finally the plane landed with a thud and through the corner of my eyes, I saw my mother quickly thanking god for the safe flight. A familiar excitement began to grow within me at the very thought of meeting my near and dear ones after such a long time...

After seeing the movie Parineeta, I had a strong desire to visit the places that had been mentioned or shown in the movie. So I made sure I pass by the phuchka wala at the entrance of Victoria Memorial, one of the most beautiful monuments in the city. Even in the daytime, it looked spectacular. For those uninitiated, there's a lovely dancing fountain right next to Victorial Memorial called "Fountain of Joy". Also while going down Park Street, I made sure I don't miss Moulin Rouge and Trinca's; Moulin Rouge, of course is the night club where Rekha was seen singing "Kaisi paheli zindagaani"... (ok great.. now I've started singing the song as well...) Baghbazaar was not exactly en route anywhere I went, so couldn't look around that area...

Plenty of new shopping malls had come up within the last few years. In my earlier visit, I had made two attempts to visit Metro Plaza, a huge shopping complex there, but my earlier efforts had been thwarted back then, once by incessant rains followed by a car breakdown and another time by the Ratha yatra that I wasn't aware of. This time my mom n I decided that come what may, we will check this out. So amidst a lot of traffic on a Monday evening, we made my dad drive down all the way for over an hour n when we finally reached the destination we see a board "Monday Closed. The shop will reopen on Tuesday at 1:30 pm"... At that point, I don't think anyone could've felt more homicidal than my parents... Me? nonchalant as usual... The newest addition to the sprawling city is the lovely City Centre in the heart of Salt Lake area. It is a massive shopping mall, a few times the size of Forum in Bangalore and houses outlets of a lot of famous brands, including a few international ones and also has quite a few eateries for foodies like me. For movie goers, this place has Inox as well, a big multiplex... Ok.. now this has started looking like an advertisement of City Centre so I suppose I oughtta stop...

Any description of Calcutta would be incomplete without a mention of food... My mouth's watering at the very thought of it... Right from the chicken rolls (here we call them Calcutta Kathi Kabab), cutlets to the phuchkas (that's the pani puri equivalent), jhaal muri and chudmud... Calcutta.. oops sorry, Kolkata has it all. As for the sweets... yummy... mishti doi, rasgullas (or roshogollas), shor bhaja, gujiya, sandesh, pantua (that's like gjs... er.. gujab jamun) n the list goes on... Probably now you would understand why it is so difficult to watch one's weight in Calcutta...

Guess I've advertised enough for Calcutta... though honestly the city of joy needs no advertisement. It's such a lively city with warm people... Anyways, time flew while I was there n suddenly the day of my departure arrived. The plane took off and I could see the Hooghly river with bridges over it... Howrah, Second Hooghly bridge etc n could even see Victoria memorial from a great height as the plane ascended.... n then the city was obscured in white feathery clouds as I looked back longingly to catch one last glimpse of the city I had grown up in...

Well, definitely looking forward to visiting the city again next year... n now I aim to grow from football to a rugby ball in the horizontal direction... he he he... till then auf wiedersehen!