Just got back from Kolkata last night and it was quite a trip! I went there after almost 12 years (we don't have many relatives there so didn't find a chance to visit) and it was something... unlike Delhi which has undergone so many facelifts and plastic surgeries, Cal is not in the crazy madness of change yet. There are lots of changes, yes, and there will be more to come, but the city hasn't lost its character. There were the Communist Party rallies, the French shutters of the old homes and the omnipresent smell of food everywhere. Some culinary highlights were: steamed prawns bathed in mustard curry and wrapped in a banana leaf at Sonargaon, mutton kathi rolls at Nizam's and mishti doi and kachauri at Mithai.
No trip down memory lane would be complete without taking a look at my old school Modern High School for Girls (MHS) where I spent 3 very impressionable years. This was the only school I actually walked to from home, which was about 15 minutes away. Home was 44, Ironside Road, a leafy secluded compound near Ballygunge road, which holds too many memories of My First Best Friend, My First Crush, My First Great Book I Read, etc. etc. It was definitely one of those places that defined my childhood... in a blessedly good way!
So back to Delhi, my present home, and where preps for the shaadi tamasha (not mine, chill!) are well and happening...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Back Home - Update 1
It's Sunday morning and am munching a neatly diced guava peppered in chaat masala. Delhi's winter sun is playing hide and seek but in a couple hours I'll hop onto the nearby metro to walk the streets of Chandni Chowk at the other end of town. Ah! it's good to be home :)
Got in a few days back and have happily caught up with some of the ol' faces... A who finally got hitched after what seemed like The Eternal Courtship (8? or 10 years something like that). C, a recently returned expat and school chum, who was the same as ever... went to one of her famous parties and got introduced as "the journalist from Washington, DC." haha. And S, a former colleague, and Cuban Cigar Convert, who clearly hasn't stopped his brand of madness.
Since my folks have moved into this suburban multi-storeyed haven called Dwarka, getting anywhere into the proper city takes at least 45 mins. to an hour. Thank God for Delhi Radio to keep me company in the traffic, even though the music is constant Bollywood. Not that I mind, but every tune seems to have the same dhin-chak beat!
I went to SN Market and South Ex. They both keep getting bigger and flashier each time. But the aaloo chaat and juice guy at Sarojini has held on tightly to the same corner. Lots more fake jewellery and shawl walas too. Need to go back and get me some...
Tomorrow am off to Cal (or Kolkata if you were born in the 90s) for more reunions, shopping and food adventures!!
Got in a few days back and have happily caught up with some of the ol' faces... A who finally got hitched after what seemed like The Eternal Courtship (8? or 10 years something like that). C, a recently returned expat and school chum, who was the same as ever... went to one of her famous parties and got introduced as "the journalist from Washington, DC." haha. And S, a former colleague, and Cuban Cigar Convert, who clearly hasn't stopped his brand of madness.
Since my folks have moved into this suburban multi-storeyed haven called Dwarka, getting anywhere into the proper city takes at least 45 mins. to an hour. Thank God for Delhi Radio to keep me company in the traffic, even though the music is constant Bollywood. Not that I mind, but every tune seems to have the same dhin-chak beat!
I went to SN Market and South Ex. They both keep getting bigger and flashier each time. But the aaloo chaat and juice guy at Sarojini has held on tightly to the same corner. Lots more fake jewellery and shawl walas too. Need to go back and get me some...
Tomorrow am off to Cal (or Kolkata if you were born in the 90s) for more reunions, shopping and food adventures!!
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