Christmas Calcutta

Winter 2011, was lethargic, chilled and enjoyable; just like the way you would expect winter to be after a sweltering summer in the tropics. Calcutta is rocking in Winter and 2011 reminds me of my school days, when the chill was as bone shaking as it is today, (27.12.11; 00:07hrs). Well, it surely would come into the flavor, when I met my school-time pal as well as had a sneak peep into the night life at Park Street and associated areas after 7 long years. After 2004, that is; I have never visited Park Street in Christmas!

The carols weren't heard though, but loved the spices of "Bangali-ana", flavors of Bengal in it! Park Street, on 24th Dec, 2011 was almost inaccessible. Leaving the options of Oly, Mags or PeterCat, Arunima opted for the  Tung Fong - her family restaurant! Munching on the butter fry and tung fong chic specials and chatting over two and a half large pegs of Blender's Pride, I enjoyed my evening with Sudipto, Neel and not to mention, Arunima. Ironically, I celebrated my 10 years of friendship with her, since 2001. Old and seasoned ducks, we are!!!

Some memoirs...

Then there was 25th, December 2011. Well, the spirit was already in, literally as we well as virtually. After completing the quota of my Sunday tuition, I headed for the same place and this time, armed with my Nikon D5000, hoping to capture the moments of smiles and frolic. But Park Street literally clogged my ambition, due to the swarm of Calcutta public. Seemed more like 25000 strong battalion, marching to capture the minimal space of the street, renamed after Mother Teresa as Mother Teresa Sarani. I asked my colleague (Nandana), to board down at Maidan rather than Park Street. It seemed comparatively empty. Well, by the time the girl could arrive in her attire I took the opportunity to aim my lens towards the cultural heritage that Calcutta boasts of! Programs ranging from the tunes of Rabindranath Tagore to the modern pop like Kolaveri D! Little artists came under the spotlight with their recitations, synthesizers, hornets and claps from the masses. It was Christmas Chill in Calcutta. The mood was in and so was the light and sound. The city was vibrant and Calcutta justified her name as the Cultural Capital of India. It never deprives the intellect nor doe sit deprive the capitalists! Neon light flooded the streets announcing their presence within the neurons of the city, ready to give you kind in exchange of cash! There you have, paani-puris, which we adore in the name of fuchka, momos, santa-caps, horns, balloons, soap bubbles... name them, you have them!

And then, there was light too!

Nandana came in and thanks to her, I came across a very nice ritual, which I am not ashamed of mentioning. Lighting the candles infront of Saint Paul's Cathedral. Felt light and happy after doing so, although I have only a pic of her doing the same and a few more...

"Silent Night! Holy Night!

All is Calm, All is Bright!"

26th December, 2011. With India dominating the Boxing Day Test match, Down Under against Australia- little did I know that I will be heading for a fascinating exhibition at the Art College, beside Indian Museum in their annual cultural and art fiesta called Parampara. Its 147th year this time and my Holy Lord! The pinches of never pursuing this career started haunting me as long as I was out there. Some great photography, works of art out of scrap material, painting, knit work and then there was a skit performed on the college grounds. Loved it!

In brief, Calcutta shone and glittered amidst the footsteps of the Santa and Lord Jesus. Looking forward for a great winter ahead and also a great year! 2012, many things will change, but I wish, the winter in Calcutta (Kolkata) remains the same!

Till then... enjoy reading!

Meri en: My Childhood.

When you hit on a bunch of tunes, that reminds you of your school days; inspite of several pressures in the career, you feel like winning all the avenues of life.

Anjan Dutta, Nachiketa... brings back the spices of the childhood romance.

2441139; Meri En; Samson; Ranjana... some selected spices of the 90's...

Kissed the leather boots, uniform, rickshaws, diesel cars and tin-made buses of Calcutta. The streets were less techno, still, they were Golden.

What have we lost?

1) Walking through the befallen bed of the Autumn Leaves; we have cars at our avail...

2) Licking the ice-lollies, escaping the eyes of the ever obvious watchful moms; this generation mom's are all too engaged in their career...

3) How can we forget the candy floss, ready made, warm from their spinning wheels; today we have Boomer packed ones - stale!

4) The golden sun used to burn upon our shoulders, making them sweat, salty and dusted! We loved those and miss when we see today the young guys are all neat and clean, running for their cars for their share of thrill in the XBox!

5) The scrap books were full of imagination. Pasting paper cuttings and often washing our hands off the glue; Today we have print outs! Come on! What do we learn?

6) Life... was so simple!

But today we have Apple!

Miss them... Miss my CBS (Calcutta Boys' School) ... Miss my sunny winter... Miss my Life!

Death: Its a poem of Life.

Moved by another movie, I write this short article to what I think of the term; "Death".

Archies Final Project; rubs the Ginie out of my lamp. There are some moving dialogues that defines death, or at least try to define that.

Suicide: A permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Death: Its all about pain, blood that flows through our veins and that makes life complete.

In a word, Death defines life. How he/she led it. How he/she won or lose it. It does define life.

I have been part of several such incidences where dying was better than living. But, life won over the feeling because death at point meant an incomplete answer to the sweet tragedy called life. Its meant to be completed and not half done or left. Instances was followed by loneliness. The silent sound of the night drew into the dawn, making me feel the smell of air with each breathe. I felt lucky!

Today, after watching Archie's tryst with time, research on the meaning of death has brought forward those memories, a fresh. Today and even a few days or years ago, I have bid farewell to these vagabond thoughts and left the hobby of chasing geese in the open field of ever happy land. 

More over, pre-empt death always questions these people (Archie), the reason to try for it. Why? And then, people who give the loneliness pacify their adrenalin, they find the answer. And just like an End of Season Sale, you get a coupon free with the answer. The Reason to Live. Why coupon? Because, you can re-live and redraw your course of life, taking the turns, the right way. Just like Archie did.

You don't need an Oscar to think. You need a mind.

Death is your mind, always defining it and directing it to find a way to Live. And just like the name-roll in any movie, where the director's name comes in last;

For the Movie called Life,

Directed by

Death

It follows....

Gandu: "The Censored Film"

Q.

Well thats not the question as to why this film is "banned" from the Indian Market of entertainment. Its the pet name of the creator, who was bold enough to do something different in the arena of entertainment.

Its a film with least "civilized" dialogues. Its a film where action spoke for the theme. Its a film not for the losers, but for the winners who missed to savor the flavor of watching different. Something that's true to each and every teenage's life and better to say, something which 80% of the males think; in India. But again, its all about censorship.

In a country obsessed with mileage, production of the "common man's" thinking in its un-polished nature, is a crime. Kapil Sibal's obsession with monitoring the social media is an example and so is the censor board's decision to throttle the film from the mass. Reason? Well... you know as well as I do. Here, when you slap a politician, you get behind bars, but when a politician slaps you, he gets the other "b"- bail. So we have to go with the society and I followed the route.

Torrent it! You get the film. Appreciated the work expressed within it.

Really, Gandu is an "off-beat", "lack lustre" movie. But I loved how it was expressed. The colloquial slang came smoothly, because we too use them. No one can deny it, like "mathata chude geche" (thoughts have been fucked), "bal" (many meanings, depends on the expression), etc etc...

The story of a youth, who wants to be a rapper. The single mother child was fed up with "Das-babu", who made is mom nothing more than a slut, but the mom was helpless, as Das-babu used to pay their livelihood. Frustration flows out in RAPPING, the ambition of the guy; when suddenly he wins a lottery. He gets famous due to his rapping, whereby he comes to the forefront as DJ GANDU. The story starts here, with drugs, lazy-hours, masturbation and of course sex (defined as the first Bengali Movie to show it in real skin).

People who take it as a pornographic rated picture, are welcome to do so. I pity them, coz out of these people, 90% have had the desire for what was shown, leave aside the profession. The rest, will appreciate the work, the art in it!

Afterall we do have Kamasutra, so why not Gandu.

There lies the Q... by Q... expressed by S...me.

Notification.

From today, I uphold my new photographic logo:

This is just a step forwards towards adopting the passion of photography. In this regards I would like to mention my assocaition with the Photography club, whose iClickers website is full of activities and admirable things. I think, the people who have the inclination towards photography can join in the elite group of members list! Its a great learning podium.

Black Friday: AMRI- Kolkata.

A very common name. Known by many and the Holy Bible encrypts it as Friday the 13th. The day of the Devil.

Searched the net and Wikipaedia came up with a list, where I added a very painful truth just now. The line reads like this:

Black Friday (2011), AMRI hospital, Kolkata, India. Fire and carbon monoxide smoke suffocates 89 patients to death on the day. Dec 9.

But, Wiki has a long list.

AMRI, Kolkata. Is a big name in the field of Medical Health care, equipped with great instruments of life care. But, thanks to the untrained management and house keeping, 89 (now 92); lost their precious life. That too at a place where they have had come to get their ailments cured. Who knew, December 9th, 2011 will spell their date with hell, rather than heal!

Shocked! Never in the history has such a tragedy struck the heart of mankind. Sources say its a second largest death toll afte the Guatemala massacre, which killed 225 patients.

I have nothing to say, only a prayer to make:

It is never easy to replace death.

May be we will never be able to-

Just a prayer in hand...

Hope in the eyes...

May their death never go in vain...

May we learn from their loved ones' despair...

May we be humans first...

And money makers last!

Tip Toe...

The winter has announced its presence in the midst of a Friday dawn... The crows shrill through the mist that is yet to give way to the sun's rays...

Its winter in Kolkata, and I have to trod past the wet pavement, looking forward for another day to unviel at Indian Institute of Chemical Biology. Just a year ago, there was also a world outside the premises of IICB, where I used to to tip toe out of the lab-hours, and meet you. See you and hold thy hands, apart from savoring the fragrance that you always smeared the air around you. Life was so lively back then.

Today, my heart... you will be facing the panel for a presentation, and I know you will rock. More so, I shall surely call for the stars to be beside you and my wishes are always there with you. After all, its Us who will win the US from there and here... undoubtedly, the prayers have always been answered and it shall never be an Odd incidence today.

Om Ganeshai Namah!

Ingenuity.

To deliver something to the world, in your own fashion statement is mostly termed as ingenuity. Handling pain is one of them. You handle that, absorb that and then deliver the world with your reaction: "I am Fine" and smile...!

Thats why, its better to say "Smiles to Go before I Sleep!" (Anonymous; may be)

Today, I realized it in a very unique manner. I realized that I have this in-born capability to smile away amidst unjust pain that I recieve (sometime in history). Its a different that fellowship is delayed at the moment and I am facing a uphill financial task; better say downhill...

See! Its always better in the words, although I know that its atrociously hot and spicy life at the moment with thousands of thorns biting my bumps!! (prickly beans!)

But, to every article there is a note of history, that .... mmm increases the "hit rate" of the blog! As it is, my articles are going down day by day, in standard! Today, 8th Dec, 2011; Sehwag smashes Sachin Tendulkar's recordof 200 ODI runs in a single innings and reached a  new height of 219 in 149 balls. This pounding was against West Indies, in Indore.

Bodhgaya, Bihar (India)

I need the peace badly!!!

Renewing Ties...

It had been a long time, since I last pinned my article in this electronic medium. But I had my reasons as well.

More than staying in Kolkata, I was busy chasing the goose in the open fields of Bihar (disgusting) and Assam (which was cool, thanks to a half day halt at Meghalaya).

I ended partly with the Himachal Pradesh news, and with the essence of 2011 almost over and clicking into the cooler and nicer part of the year in Kolkata, I would love to describe this as a year of Travel, for me. I roamed a good part of India this year, which includes introducing myself to the North eastern corridors of the nation, into Assam and Meghalaya!

I will mention the excerpts regularly, just like the old proficient blogging, but just on the parting note!

"It was a nice year, blessed in many ways, hard in some others... but I loved it and love 2012 more, coz I believe it shall be life changing for me!" This article serves as a renewing link!