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.......