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Friday, April 13, 2007


Good Morning Kolkata

Even before the first crow can caw for its breakfast,
Montu will bicycle his way through the narrow gullies of Shovabazar,
And throw the world rolled into a bundle, to eagerly awaiting bhodroloks in their verandahs ,
Sometimes the bundle will miss its target and roll down the moss covered walls
To fall into a puddle of yesterday’s rain
But that wont deter Potol’s father from sending the ever handy Minati masi
To go and collect it…
For his morning cup of cha and marie bishkoot is eagerly waiting on the plastic covered dining table….
So is a tall glass of lovingly made isabgol…
A few windows away little Minu is gobbling maach bhaat before bending in front of the thakur ghor and rushing out , water bottle in tow, to catch the bus…
Minus maa will follow her soon to school after finishing her chores,
Waiting patiently outside holding a tender coconut ,
As if her daughters future depended on the fateful sip of the nectar of the gods...
Minu’s Maa will also chant a silent prayer looking at the young college girls walking past
Praying that her daughter doesn’t turn out like these eye brow pierced freaks,
One of the freaks, Rhea, for a few fleeting moments, will reminiscence her tender coconut sipping days,
But quickly go back to worrying about the contraceptiveless sex she had the last night…

And before you know it my city will stretch herself awake…

Monday, April 02, 2007


Life…in a Metro

Metro on Sundays is transformed inexplicably to a domestic zone….not that it is the office goer’s domain on weekdays, being the quieter and a relatively inflexible mode of transport of the city , Metro is clearly her most underutilized infrastructure (next only to the monstrous red over bridges that loom incongruously over the most quaint crossings)…
Sigh I digress again ….As I was saying, Metro on Sundays are characterized by the couples in various stages of matrimony or pre matrimony…as you listlessly make your way through moody electronic gates who greedily gobble up your ticket only to blink a vexing red cross and therefore you have to shout for the blue shirted metro guards (“ei dada please come na” … “ki holo ?? kothar theke uthechilen…ek minute daran”)…by the time you convince the dada to open a manual gate for you, the train you could have comfortably slipped into is missed by a whisker...but since it’s a Sunday you can afford to shrug and find a pillar to rest on … I always wanted to be the sort who is oblivious to the crowd and is lost in a book…but people always distract me…men , women children…faces , idiosyncrasies, and hidden agendas…shirts , trousers, duppatas and saris…talcumed backs, transparent blouses highlighted by black bras, damp sweat patches, flaring nostrils jungled with overgrown hair…shreds of chicken fibre caught between yellowing teeth, entangled hands, bulging pants….
Everything is noticed, smelt and felt… sometimes with disgust sometimes with morbid curiosity…
But on Sundays things change…everything is bathed in the hues of domesticity…squealing children, men and their wives, young men and their wives, old men and their wives, men with their soon to be wives and more squealing children...
Categorising these various stages of matrimony will be an easy job for even the most casual observer …
You have-
1) The just married type…bangled hands and blazing sindoor …great bodies contoured with great sex …tight jeans…flimsy duppata… arching backs…sweet nothings…
2) The soon to be married type…entangled hands…furtive glances…need for a room…clingy girlfriend ….irritated with desire boyfriend…parted lips…unspoken words…always jeans and sequined tops…
3) Married with young children type…tousled hair…inept hapless father…efficient, irritable mother…pinned synthetic sari…dark circles…contended eyes…chocolate ice cream stained shirts…
4) Married for decades type…talcumed and cottoned…sparse yet well nourished hair plastered into neat plaits and plates…lazy nods…comfortable distances…

Sigh…how I wish I could ever fit in …

P.S. incase you haven’t noticed my imaginatively titled post is my little tribute to the soon to be released Bollywood film with the same name…it has some great nos. by composer Pritam …pliss do check out :-)