7/1/09

The Butterfly Effect...!!

This is about one special gurl who came into my life half a decade ago.Oh my god,i never realized it,this makes it sound like we r soooo old...i guess we r....anyway,she is the lady with the wings.During our years of togetherness,I have realized how much she means to me.But as Fate would have it,She separated us,and now we meet only when we both are in Calcutta.and during this time we make every moment worthwhile.
When i first met her in class 10,she n me were both this introverted shy personalities who changed in class 11 suddenly.She tells me,i remember u were the first guy to ever call up at my place.N she was the first gurl to do so at mine.So in a way,because of the many firsts that we shared together,we remain special for each other.Her meaning in my life is of an extent that i never realized till the tyme we parted ways for our respective future lives.N i had never thot anybody from the outside world could play such an important role as she does.Now that we r moving so fast in our lives,sometimes i like to fall back n let go....n feel like i was sumwhr quiet away from the hustle wid someone,n the someone that comes to my mind first is her.
This girl is everything,she's beautiful,talented,hard working,honest,yet fun at the same tym, loves to talk....n i really admire her for more ways than one.N thats something else,i hav learnt a lot from her,shes been there for me always,we've done so much together,n i hope this will last forever....Thanx !!!

Time bares witness to wat we have had,
Stars n shadows flitter in n out of our lives
neon lights seem dim without u
But i dare not hope for too much....
Lest the neon lights go out...


my city,my Calcutta


Somedays back i was going to Howrah station to drop my mamidida.She stays in Saltlake.I and my dad picked her up from there,n as we made our ways through the streets of Calcutta,yes Calcutta, not Kolkata, i realized there was so so so much about the city that i had never known. I am from North Calcutta originally,n i know that I know pretty much more about Calcutta than most of my friends.And because of my extensive trips around Calcutta,i navigate around Calcutta pretty well.But that day,I suddenly found myself in a part of Calcutta i had never known.If you go straight from College Street More towards C.R.Avenue n cross it n go straight towards Howrah,thats where I am sure you will find a new Calcutta if you're not familiar with it. There are thousands of shops there,thousands,and the main road branches off into lanes n bylanes forming a maze in the whole area,which are again filled with shops.Then there are the shops inside the buildings.One collapsible gate leads to an arching lane filled with more shops yet again,lanes so narrow with shops on either side that one person can barely walk,yet this is where inhabited so many people,everywhere u look,there are hundreds of people n people.Amidst all this chaos,kids played n people played 'taash' on the roadside,it was a picture so different from wat we see everyday.This was the real Calcutta,from here businesses were conducted,dealings confirmed,goods delivered,my dad remarked that everyday at least a thousand crores of business was done from this area itself,n it didnt look impossible at all....then he pointed out a lane inside one house,saying that there was the medicine shop where he had got pills for my grandmother during her last days wen she had cancer.She hadn't known she did.I felt sad again,because all of it reminded me of my childhood days.I used to sleep with my grandmother,she would tell me stories till i fell asleep.I dont remember much,beacause i was little when she passed away,but my 'thammi' will always be there for me. I shifted from the topic,there was this Calcutta that i hadnt ever known of,the Calcutta from the times of the British themselves all of it was chaos,horns blaring,people shouting,sweating, children playing,but amidst all of it I was suddenly transported to my childhood days,when my dad pointed out the medicine shop.Look around u,i told myself, where do all of these people go in the night,these many,porters,labourers,bus 'pilots'(as they are referred to),lorry drivers,cabbies,the 'taash' playing men,the children....where do they go? As night falls,every street becomes deserted after the sweltering buzz of the day.....n then just when we arrived at the intersection leading to Howrah station from there,i saw a temple.N i wondered in awe at the energy n life within the people around me,The bells clanged n a 'purohit' offered prayers to the deity inside the temple,n around this little roadside temple crowded peolpe,causing yet more chaos,bringing traffic to a stop.The place was abuzz even as people reeled from the severe heat n humidity.... Calcutta is still here,watever of it might have changed to Kolkata.Old buildings of the British age may have been replaced by new high rises n swanky malls,plazas,the skyline of Calcutta may hav changed forever,but that doesnt make a difference,because once ur inside this city,u'll know its different,u'll c that the people that still live here find joys n happiness from the littlest matters,u'll find that no matter wat the situation is,people r ready to smile n work,people care for their near n dear ones,n that is wat counts at the end of the long run i think.No matter how much money they make,people here will be the same,chaotic yet calm in a way only we will know,religious yet not,because even as the cabbie is shouting for people to get out of the way from the roadside temple,he'll take a quick 'nomoshkaar' in front of the temple as he passes, the children will still play with atever they get to lay their hands on,n men will forever lay a tarpaulin or a mat to sit down hav a 'beedi' play 'taash'.Calcutta is conflict n calmness,sad yet happy, unlawful yet law abiding,unloving but at the end of the day,caring.......

Scared and Safe

 It seems like I go through these sine waves of anxiety and determination. I ride out the waves differently of course. It seems like the anx...