Times of India, Kolkata has a weekly supplement called Kolkata Rising. It glorifies the new Kolkata and tries to bring in the advertisers. Good for the city but who cares. My hometown is still the lovely city of rolling trams, wet egg rolls, tinned public buses, greasy taxis and crooked autodrivers.
It was nice to come in and out of ITC Center. Move around book fair. Parse the books at Oxford. And listen at the audio posts in Music world. I made sure I availed all modes of public transport. All these years I used to crane my head inside jampacked public bus waiting for the moment of freedom. This time I was loving it. The taxi driver was taking me for a royal ride circumventing the actual route. But I was loving it. The walls declared Mamata's attempt to topple the Red Bastion. Inspite of my deep rooted dislike for either parties I was loving it. My car negotiated umpteen potholes on Eastern Bypass. But I was loving it.
I realized I was out of all it. My perspective had changed. I was no more the suffering denizen but the tourist soaking each moment. I have stopped judging it. I have stopped expecting things from it. So the malls, the multiplexes, the new software companies or even the Rajarhat developments are not exciting me.
Each city has its own uniqueness. I am comfortable that unlike others Kolkata will never stop being unique inspite of its "rising".
1 comment:
i have lost whatever i had for kolkata. its just a place now where my relatives (numbers shrinking as the elder generation expire one by one) and few (numbers shrinking as friends move to new jobs in new cities) friends live. inspite of having wonderful memories, i know i will never be able to settle down in kolkata, despite the fact that i will get a great job there. sad but true
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