Shaptami 2009

I just spent the whole day at home basically. I slept all morning ,watched TV and hogged at home-fried rice n chilli fish. At around 5pm I simply couldn't take sitting at home anymore!!! I got dressed and stepped outside into the throng...yes...Babubagan has been pulling crowds this time cuz of its Pujo Theme...'DurgaBhobon'...watever that is. Anyway,I didnt have anything to do or anyone to go anywhere with. I called Sreerupa, having lunch. So wat i did was go to Abhirup's place. From there we decided to go to Ballygunge Cultural Association, to watch Neel da n dad perform.

On the way, we saw a weird thing, A small para pujo had its dhaakis playing in front of the pandal, and all the dhaakis were wearing football jerseys,socks and shorts, very unlike the traditional dhoti kurta they normally wear,n they were jumping all over the place as they played. this was the first time I have ever seen anything like this.Anyway,Puntu kaka n Tanaya kakima joined me there. N oh,Got to meet school seniors n rony n rohit da there..Felt wonderfully nice... (^_^) Anyway the show started around 715pm, we watched till around 745 pm,then left for Maddox Square where dia n school ppl were waiting for us. On the way,Puntu Kaka stopped at this mishtir dokaan n said that he wanted to have this "chomchom" which was "famous" supposedly. Tanaya kakima made a face,"yeesh,biyer aage ekbar khaiyechilo, puro mone hoyechilo chaar chamoch chini khelam" !! :) At Maddox, I left them wid Dia and disappeared...

There was mud n 'bhepuus" n people screaming everywhere. Simi called,met her..she said, "i am feeling very sick,please come with me, I need to have food, CCd chol joldi"....that's what confirmed it...I said"ami jani keno tui jachchish baire"..She pressed on"keno bolto?" I said,"na an ulto palta bokchi...chol chol" and as we turned at the gate, there was the butterfly perched on the bamboo railings...*beams* I was surprised n happy n so many things suddenly at the same time...But i somehow knew it all along...that she would come. There had been too many hints all the way...But we did make our way to CCD,all of us...And in all of my excitement,i forgot the most crucial point-the puja menu at CCD, capitalist extortion that is...You will not get any normal stuff on Pujo days, they have all the overpriced stuff,which they overprice more with compulsory chocolate sauce and ice cream...We footed the bill at 360 bucks for 2 mere cups of coffee n a plate of cheese balls.Shit!!! Absolute pile loads of it!!! anyway...then it was dinnertime...I Bappa Ashin and simi went off to Azad Hind Dhaba for dinner....returning around 1230 in the night...

Shashti 2009

Just as we were about to get out, came down the fat drops of rain. Oindrila called," bari jabooo.... please ami ekhane aar thakte parchi na... n i hav a boil on my eyelid... :( :( ". Am Sad. Then came down the water,its been a long tym since i saw something like this...South Calcutta got thoroughly washed today..THOROUGHLY. We did manage to start out with rain pouring down, gushing all around the car, got to Saltlake, picked up Ru n didibhai n went on to see the pujos at DumDum Park,Sreebhumi park,Laketown, Telengabagan and ultimately and as usual, Bagbazar. Its our hotspot. But we'd arrived early,the rides hadn't started even. We got this bubble blower there,me and Dia-all the way back, bubbles surrounded us like flies around a fire.So we made our way back to Deshapriyo Park for the rides. What a sight!!! You could have a mudbath there easily,hassle free, free of cost. But it was worth it. We sloshed through, to the Pirate Ship and screamed our lungs off every time the wind rushed past and the ship went down as we sat on its end. Crystal Chopstix served as our dinner haunt. and thats it....Shashti well spent, in the company of loved ones...laughing at silly jokes, cracking jokes that would make someone outside our world put hands on their ears, fighting, screaming, doing what our hearts wanted.

This is the way Pujo should be-we hardly saw any pujos in the 7 hrs we spent in the car, but every moment together was n is worth visiting all of the pujos. Dia's shoes got remarked at by some random girl on the street as "yeesh,ki baaje dekhte meyetar juto ta", Ru started laughing so loudly on the streets, that a girl in front stopped actually to turn around to stare and then tell her companion" baba,meyeta kemni kore heshe uthlo hotath". And oh shit, we didnt have cotton candy today!!! Its been a tradition,every year, No one remembered this year...i did have a feeling we were forgetting something at Bagbazar!!! Something has to be done about it, Cant believe everyone just forgot....!!! tomorrow,rather,today's saptami...have no fixed plans yet, lets see where Pujo takes me today....

Pujo 2009 etc etc...

Pujo 2009 starts today, Maha Shashti today. Pujo is so early today. Its good in a way. The time is great, with a hint of rain pattering throughout the day. It always rains during Pujo, always, don't know why. But I feel old this time. There isn't that interest to go pandal hopping that i used to go in my younger years. It all feels the same. Except that u gotta go see the Pandals, Made of different materials. But what difference does it make? In the end, its the same idol of Durga and her children. Its been a long time since i have been to the 'thakurghor' in my house. People need a belief to hang on to. A hope that will keep them going, an energy to carry on with life's valleys. Yes some people do find that solace in their gods. I don't have one. Before an exam students pray. Even i have,but to exactly who am i referring to here? I have no answer to that. Its just that I have always found that I am happy when I am with my friends and family. I have found out that that's what keeps me going. N i have found that life turns out to be good always somehow. Yes,it happens with me too-good times pass fast while the bad ones last. But I somehow now cling to the hope that betterment is on its way... that's my hope that's my belief,not the idols. But every person has their own forms of belief, I respect that. Pujo,now i believe,is to be enjoyed and experienced in phases. This phase is simply to delve into the spirit of it, enjoy the warm-heartedness,love and addas. Gone is the time when pandal hopping was a thrill, going far off to see prize-winning pujos a different fervor altogether. That phase will come back again I know.But that's a different time in the future-When it is up to you to see the kids enjoy the pujos. The energy will be new then,refreshed. I wish this phase would stay. Sure,it would mean the staying back of all the worries and responsibilities of our growing age but its worth it. It does seem childish,these whims of mine.But i really wish so. I am happy with the way things are in my life. Apart from the constant worries of my future career where i wanna do so many things,there's a bliss. I have my friends, my family always.That's a lot for me. Life's short,too damn short,there's so much i wanna do. But i gotta wait till the right time. Sometimes i feel like plunging ahead....y don't i just get into the thing i wanna do? But something holds me back,a little voice in the back of my head tells me," stop idiot, you've got a lot to right now. there are a lot of things on your mind which u have to do first,i am your mind, i know, i feel the burden". And i stop in my tracks, my thought wavers on it for a while and then i force it to disappear. I have no specific plans this pujo, today,I am going out with my cousins, Saptami no plans as such yet, Oshtomi will be at pia didiz n then whole night with school frends, n Nobomi Doshomi again no plans as such.Oindrila's not gonna be here this pujo,will miss her this time. we do have fun together.Anyway, much about it all, have to sleep,really. Gotta wake up tomorrow to a day full of fun and laughter. :)

My car won't budge...Even though its as classy as that one...

When you sit back to try n enjoy life, it gets kind of difficult you'll notice. You're laid back, chilled, thinking of things that have just rushed past you, of people you need to catch up with etc. But the moment you try and do something like that, you are bound to get caught in a mind snarl. Your car won't budge from its place. And you enter a state of numbness, idleness that you can't even defend with enough reasons if someone points it out to you. And its difficult coming out of it. There has to be a proper distraction to get you out of it. A major one. Period.

Sloshed!!

Life's slow all of a sudden...i actually am kinda stagnant lately,i don't even know what this post will be about.Its kinda sad when u dont know wat ur doing,u feel lonely,stupid n sleepy..... Yet you wanna stay awake in the moment somehow,Its basically this dilemma u face n u just dnt know how to get out of it.Maybe its a phase n will pass over,but it makes one reflective of oneself, makes one think about what his life is about actually. N i ask myself, what am i doing?is this wat i really want? am i doing wat i really want? should i do wat i really want or do something that my parents want? Cuz after all these years wen they've done so much for u,it does seem a bit selfish wen u say i wanna do things my way wen they want u to do something else. So u think n think n think,n u decide that there has to be a compromising stage,but u still don't know how to get there.Its damn irritating,u just don't know wat to do. But once u find that objective,u know wat to do i guess, i dunno,i haven't yet been there.....

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.......