Oh! Calcutta

“…and I’ll never ever get back to Kolkata again!”

Most of these days’, conversations with mom and dad, end with this line. Yes! Probably if I get an opportunity, I’ll never get back to Kolkata! But Calcutta? Nah! It’s not the same! Calcutta is a time some of us are trying to hold back and treasure. Kolkata can be ‘Tilottama’ but Calcutta is an emotion! 

The City of Joy we call it! Well how much joy Kolkata has given me, I don’t know! But Calcutta surely has been a piece of my taped heart that has been broken over and over again! Yes and Calcutta has witnessed it all! My first love, first heartbreak, first cigarette, first time in Oly Pub before turning 21, first kiss, my dumb poetry I had started as early as the seventh grade and has witnessed its transformation over the years! It made me fall in love with rains and winters and winter rains predominantly! The fumes escaping those earthen cups, holding the best tea in the world! 

The millions of pigeons flying for their lives, as the streets are cleaned early morning! The incessant cacophony of traffic, reverberating life! The sweat dripping sticky summers, the gloomy dark skied poetic monsoons and the lively, chilly and colourful winters that wrap up the city in shawls and caps and comforters! The crazy whims and fancies during Durga Puja, the homecoming, the reuniting and for us, the ones who stays away from the city, listening to Mahalaya at four in the morning, in iTunes, the unending pictures on facebook that give us a virtual trip of the whole city and the sudden sound of the ‘dhak’ in the background when dad calls to express how much he misses you! The winter delicacies that the whole city gulps irrespective of religion and cast, from jaggery to ‘Peethe’ to ‘Sandesh’! Yeah, that’s my City of Joy!

Every second in the innumerable ‘gallis’ of the city, a new love story is born, while one ends and the city is ready to comfort and soothe the heart broken at all times! As it was very beautifully put out by Sohini, “I don’t come back to Kolkata for being at home! Rather I get back home every time to be in Calcutta!” Every time I decide to stay away from Calcutta, she pulls me back again and embraces me, leaving a smile of satisfaction and warmth to get back to the acquaintances .

Every single winter, there’s a typical morning when I wake up and feel this immense amount of joy for being born here! With the year ending, it’s almost 22 years now that I’ve lived and loved this city! Every single street, metro station, bus stop, food stall and avenues in the city has a memory attached. If anyone wants to know me, they need to know all these places first! The morning metro, the local train, the crowded bus, the rash autos, the yellow taxis, the new found olas, everything! 

Manipal has given me loads! More than I could have ever asked for! She has given me the most important person in my life! Yet the irony is, he originally belongs here, to Kolkata! With the passing years, it’s almost less than 1/3rd of the year that I get to spend in this beautiful city! And I regret it as much! However, somewhere down the line I feel, long distance is working quite well for us! It keeps the flame burning and whenever we meet, it’s like first time all over again! 

So here’s a pledge! Even though you refurbish all your malls and footpaths, leave a few red buildings and Nandan and Coffee House! ‘Coz that’s the only thing that keeps me going amidst all these humdrums of life! I love you and I know how much you love me too! Yet it feels nice if you show it once in a while! So, let the Ganga flow and the let her water break on the ghats, ‘coz that’s where I fell in love with you Oh City of Joy, for the very first time!

Picture Courtesy: Susmita Banik

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