Oh kolkata !

It's alomost 4 years that i had been living in this city, many of my classmates hail from other parts of India , many of them who were born and brought up in west bengal had done their graduation in happening cities like bangalore or delhi. I have never been out of my state, though it sounds pathetically funny in 2010 but for my family any place beyond the territory of west bengal falls in the same category of timbaktu. Most of my friends pity over kolkata and they vow never to come back here again once they are through with the course. Their list of complaints lie ranges from lack of career opportunities to poor infrastructure. Though almost all of them are true , i sometimes find a melancholic beauty in skyline of kolkata at sunset, the road infront of victoria seems shimmery sensuous after afternoon rain and though I have never tested the famous hyderbadi biryani in my life , i found that in Arsalan pretty yummy too.

A city whose past is more beautiful than present may be - Once i visited a small restaurant in khiderpur area which is famous for it's biryani ( i forgot the name ), one of my accompanions said that the house of poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta and Nabinchandra Sen (i'll be surprised if somebody identifies his name)are located nearby. After having our delicacies we tried to find out those two spots but it was almost late evening at that time and that particular portion of khiderpur is not particularly famous for it's reputation. After crossing several serpentine lanes as the guide here got confused herself, we located the house of kobi Nabinchandra Sen who once wrote an epic over Palashi-er juddho. The architecture of the house was beautiful but right now it's occupied with tennants who covered the verandah with towels and inner garments ..may be once the poet used that porch to evoke inspirations in many sunsets, same happend with MMD's house , it's now the shelter of some "brilliant tutorial home". It's expected with the heritage buildings in a developing nation but the fact is that here lies the beauty of kolkata where ,like delhi ( though i never been there but it occurs to me) , history can be found in most unexpected places.

I would like to refer Sunil babu's Sei Somoy as i had not read many references about old kolkata. A city which never used to sleep (apart from Citybank :)) , it laid awake in the brothels of Chitpur, In the arclight of Star theatre where Binodini Dashi got blessed by Shree Ramkrishna Paramhangsha , at Jorasanko thakurbari where Prince Dwarkanath Thakur threw parties to feed british aristocracy, moreover it remained lively among them who spread there branches generation after generation from three villages Gobindopur, Sutanuti, Kolkata.

India's Cultural Capital - It looks heavy in letters but seems so true when i saw some college- going kids visiting Academy of fine arts at mid-summer afternoon and studying each paintings thoroughly at otherwise near empty academy or a girl in charmina between her fingers listening to Baul-fokir utsav at Bikramgarh Maidan.

This is called bong Atlamo and i absolutely love it ( Can't help it ) and thanks Mr. Charnock , lying there somewhere on you accustomed earth , for your imperfect collage..