The City Of Joy

Oh, Calcutta! Extremely controversial play, even more than today's 'Padmavaat' when it was staged on the Broadway for the first time when we were in teens. Never watched, obviously, but got etched on the mind, for the fact that all the performers used to be stark naked, absolutely in their birthday suits. There was a lot of noise raised by 'Bhadra Lok' from then Calcutta but Broadway being Broadway, it did not pay any heed to the high pitched protests but continued on and it became the biggest hit of all the times! Time plays all the tricks. Today on the main road of Cal, stands a posh restaurant by the same name, 'Oh! Calcutta'!

Kolkatta! The City Of Joy. Again a famous book by Dominique Lapierre, on which a movie of the same name was made by Roland Joffe'.Late Om Puri played the protagonist along with late Patrick Swayze. It also went the 'Oh Calcutta' way. But it definitely depicted 'Never say die' spirit of the city positively [ La 'Do Bigha Jamin' by Bimal Roy ], of course from the western point of view. Nonetheless, the book's title earned the city its nickname 'The City Of joy', like all the Bengalis, who have two names.  A Real one and a pet one!

When you visit the place the second time after decades, the changes you notice are obvious. So when we landed on Dumdum's Netaji Subhash Chandra Basu airport, India's new-found opulence, so far only reserved for airports, feels up your eyes to the brim. But what jaded the most, was  'Illuminated' display, 'Welcome to Kolkatta, the Cultural Capital of INDIA'. Arrey! What an arrogance! Every culture in the world is equally rich and profound, and changes, like language, every hundred miles. And thus India has a vast spread of cultures from North to South and from West to East, each one distinctly unique, regal and rich. Who gave Bengal the right to snatch away this cultural heritage of India to be wrapped up only in one colour, Bengali! Actually, the real INDIAN culture if you want to taste, nothing like 'Amchi Mumbai'! It's a potpourri of so many cultures, so much mixed up with each other, yet keeping everyone's identity intact, that in the truest sense, only Mumbai can be called  " The Cultural Capital Of Today's India"

It was pitch dark, as the plane has touched down at the unearthly hours of post-midnight, yet the road to and away from the airport was jam-packed and our Uberwala took more than 45 minutes to fetch us. That was the 1st lesson of Kolkatta. Uber and Ola both are extremely difficult to get, anywhere in the city and waiting period is never less than 30 minutes. You keep on seeing them on your mobile, but minutes together they don't move. To tide over the crisis here is a tip. Get the estimate from Ola/Uber and ride Kali Pili, in Cal, Nili Pili, they are always loitering around and are game to take any distances. So named as 'No refusal' Taxis. Do they really abide by that? God only knows, because we tried only once and it was damn a wise move! Unlike Uber/ Ola they don't navigate by maps/GPR, but as they know Cal roads like the back of their hands, they take you to the destination piercing every gully and turning around every nook of Cal in minutes! The roads are smooth, definitely better than in Mumbai and are beautified, thus soothing to the eyes. Every lamp post on miles and miles of road is wrapped up in electric LEDs making Cal 'Eternal Bride' made up for the big event!
Newer assets of any Indian city nowadays are her flyovers. And Cal abounds in them. Maybe it could be a reason why Amma Lalitha used to get elected in Chennai and Mamata Didi keeps on getting elected in Bengal. They changed their states definitely to better states! MAA flyover, of course, named after her, zigzags through entire proper Kolkatta for miles and miles and has umpteen number of entries and exits. At times it has more than 2 to 3 tiers one above the other. Last time I was warned, to start at least 4 hours before the departure from Howrah, as bridge used to have bumper to bumper traffic jam, that made a pretense of moving! Last week we made to Howrah in peak hours just within 30 minutes!

A mandatory photo if you are in Cal.
Glaringly opposite was the under-construction Metro from Garia to Dumdum. Pillars are erected, slabs are laid down in most of the places but stations look like relics left after a heavy air raid! We could hardly see anybody working on the site during our entire stay in Cal. On the last day, there seemed some hope. On the entire stretch of a few kilometres, I could locate 3 workers maybe 4, with their supervisor working on something that did not seem that important! It was told that the state of affairs is for last more than 5 years. Could not understand, why the establishment that could erect so many flyovers within such a short span of time, is not taking Metro that seriously? Is it or maybe, because the flyovers were funded by the State Government and Metro is being built by the Central agencies? No political hints, from my side!
I had not visited Victoria Memorial in my last visit so it was a must.

The elegantly built structure must have been built with Taj Mahal in the mind. In sparkling white marble though the building is breathtakingly elegant, does not take away your ire towards the exploiters who bled India economically and divided us on different fronts on which we still are fighting!
Another pleasant shock that Cal gives to Mumbaikars like us, is its affordability. My son has rented a 3 bedroom, nicely furnished flat for really a paltry sum. Apartment of those dimensions could easily fetch a rent in 50 ks in Mumbai! Crisscrossed the city in Metros, by Ferries, Buses and  Olas and Pili Taxis but the fares always left chuckles from the mouth. Rs 10 for two when you travel by bus for more than 10 km ??!! Did not eat much of street food, but it seemed hygienic and reasonably priced! Even the airport had much cheaper food as compared to Mumbai's!
Visited many so-called tourists' spots but some events just come and go, not leaving any imprint behind, either on the mind or on time. Except for the warmth of visit to my son and daughter in law, this visit to Kolkatta did not leave any impact, no vibe! I just visited Cal and that's all!