Retro – One Week In Kolkata

When you first reach a place which you know will be your home for the next couple of years, it’s a weird

feeling. You absorb your sights and sounds with the feeling of familiarity which you hope to get the next

time you see the place. You don’t want to feel new and lost. You want to be a part of everything the

moment you step into new soil. Things start to feel comfy then.

That’s how it was when I first went to Bombay. I would walk around Marine Drive, Churchgate knowing that

this is would be where I’d be walking for the next three years. I liked what I was seeing. And it felt great.

Coming to Calcutta though was different. I wasn’t liking anything I was seeing. Everything seemed so sweaty

and uncared for. Very yellow, green and black. Cabs, trees, dirt. Sun, algae, grease. People, people,

people. Buses whiz past you like killer machines. Men with sweaty arms and lungis pulling heavy weights

along the roads. Women in their saris with umbrellas. Overfed children eating more. Underfed children

playing amongst themselves. Narrow roads. Crumbling buildings.

I am not exaggerating. You come and see. Come by train. Sealdah Rajdhani. And come to Salt Lake. Take

the journey I took and you’ll know what I mean.

Though once you reach Salt Lake, it’s a different place. Green and clean. I wouldn’t say pretty houses lined

up next to each other, because most of the houses wouldn’t come anywhere close to pretty. My mother

warned me that I’d find many pink and green houses here. I now know what she meant. It is obvious that

very little time and effort has been spent in thinking about the exterior of the house. I am in no position to

comment on the in interior. No house is more than three to four floors. It’s a “short” place as I like to call it.

I like that. Now I just had to find a place that I would call home for two years.

After looking a couple of places, Nirupama’s dad and my mom decided on this place. Where I am. So the

next day both of us packed our bags, had no idea where we were going, trusted our parents completely.

Parents really do want the best for us. They found a really nice place. Three seater. Pink walls. Two

balconies of which one is entirely for the three of us. Clean, nice, BIG bathroom. Huge window next to my

bed. I can lie and stare at the sky (that is when i wont be drowning in my studies :p). Close to the institute.

Walking distance from City Centre, the ONLY place to go to in Salt Lake :/ And there we had our Home

Sweet Home.

While Nirupama and me were nicely unpacking, setting the room to our liking, hoping we don’t get a

roommate for atleast another week, there is a knock on the door and in comes our new roommate. Sachi.

She’s a really nice girl. She’s a localite. Parents moved to Gujarat. She has loads of really nice friends and

the ever so important “buddy with gaddie” or BWG, as Shivani calls them. In this case, it’s more like “buddy

with gaddieS”. So we go for drives. Get picked and dropped from restaurants at night. Go for late night

walks. It’s cool.

Another reason why this place is so nice is Chameli. And her five kids, Tiger, Monkey, Pinky, Ganda, Lallu.

Their protective father. And the even more protective side-kick. The large family of stray dogs we have

befriended outside our place. Chameli is the sweetest bitch. She trusts us. We feed her and her family

twice a day. Once we go down and play with them and feed them. And then we discovered that later on at

night, when we can’t go down anymore, we can throw the biscuits from up. We’re on the second floor, by

the way. So the three adults come under our building for their midnight snack. That is, when they are not

busy barking and scaring off ANY moving object away from the puppies at night. Cars, cyclists, boys, men.

One week in the PG, we’ve watched three movies at Inox. Eaten in the PG just once… that is out of around

20 meals sevred since we’ve come. Gone to rooftop restaurants, cricket restaurants, Chinese lunch buffets,

canteens, dhabas, food courts, local restaurants, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Subway, here, there, and

everywhere!

From when it was only one week.

______________________________

When you first reach a place which you know will be your home for the next couple of years, it’s a weird feeling. You absorb your sights and sounds with the feeling of familiarity which you hope to get the next time you see the place. You don’t want to feel new and lost. You want to be a part of everything the moment you step into new soil. Things start to feel comfy then.

That’s how it was when I first went to Bombay. I would walk around Marine Drive, Churchgate knowing that this is would be where I’d be walking for the next three years. I liked what I was seeing. And it felt great.

Coming to Calcutta though was different. I wasn’t liking anything I was seeing. Everything seemed so sweaty and uncared for. Very yellow, green and black. Cabs, trees, dirt. Sun, algae, grease. People, people, people. Buses whiz past you like killer machines. Men with sweaty arms and lungis pulling heavy weights along the roads. Women in their saris with umbrellas. Overfed children eating more. Underfed children playing amongst themselves. Narrow roads. Crumbling buildings.

I am not exaggerating. You come and see. Come by train. Sealdah Rajdhani. And come to Salt Lake. Take the journey I took and you’ll know what I mean.

Though once you reach Salt Lake, it’s a different place. Green and clean. I wouldn’t say pretty houses lined up next to each other, because most of the houses wouldn’t come anywhere close to pretty. My mother warned me that I’d find many pink and green houses here. I now know what she meant. It is obvious that very little time and effort has been spent in thinking about the exterior of the house. I am in no position to comment on the in interior. No house is more than three to four floors. It’s a “short” place as I like to call it. I like that. Now I just had to find a place that I would call home for two years.

After looking a couple of places, Nirupama’s dad and my mom decided on this place. Where I am. So the next day both of us packed our bags, had no idea where we were going, trusted our parents completely. Parents really do want the best for us. They found a really nice place. Three seater. Pink walls. Two balconies of which one is entirely for the three of us. Clean, nice, BIG bathroom. Huge window next to my bed. I can lie and stare at the sky (that is when i wont be drowning in my studies :p). Close to the institute. Walking distance from City Centre, the ONLY place to go to in Salt Lake :/ And there we had our Home Sweet Home.

While Nirupama and I were nicely unpacking, setting the room to our liking, hoping we don’t get a roommate for atleast another week, there is a knock on the door and in comes our new roommate. Sachi. She’s a really nice girl. She’s a localite. Parents moved to Gujarat. She has loads of really nice friends and the ever so important “buddy with gaddie” or BWG, as Shivani calls them. In this case, it’s more like “buddy with gaddieS”. So we go for drives. Get picked and dropped from restaurants at night. Go for late night walks. It’s cool.

Another reason why this place is so nice is Chameli. And her five kids, Tiger, Monkey, Pinky, Ganda, Lallu. Their protective father. And the even more protective side-kick. The large family of stray dogs we have befriended outside our place. Chameli is the sweetest bitch. She trusts us. We feed her and her family twice a day. Once we go down and play with them and feed them. And then we discovered that later on at night, when we can’t go down anymore, we can throw the biscuits from up. We’re on the second floor, by the way. So the three adults come under our building for their midnight snack. That is, when they are not busy barking and scaring off ANY moving object away from the puppies at night. Cars, cyclists, boys, men.

One week in the PG, we’ve watched three movies at Inox. Eaten in the PG just once… that is out of around 20 meals sevred since we’ve come. Gone to rooftop restaurants, cricket restaurants, Chinese lunch buffets, canteens, dhabas, food courts, local restaurants, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Subway, here, there, and everywhere!

______________________________