Old China Bazaar Truly Kolkata
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The Joy of Staying in the 'City of Joy':The invisibles of my everyday. . Between Development theory and feminism, Babu ghat and Howrah Station, The E.M. By-Pass, Patuli and Spencer’s outlets, Fight with rickshaw drivers and walks along the ‘ pukurs ’, Piercing sound of the dhak from somewhere not too far, Oly Pub’s yummy beef to Flury ’s chocolate brownie, Watching idols on the roadside to yellow cabs zipping past SRFTI, Amruta Patil ’s bored urban life graphic pages on my wall, Zeeshan ’s biryani to roadside phucha to egg-chicken rolls, Rinsing my mouth with the tap’s salty water every morning, The posh South city Mall to fish selling shacks in front of Ambuja , Kumartuli in the rains, A curious two year old neighbor walking inside my house, Lectures by a historian on photography, Enjoying the Clown Prince at G.D Birla Sadan , A post-midnight drive to Khiddipore for some more booze, Posters on my bathroom walls to sleeping in a moshari , A sip of lebucha between the...
It was a plan, an unfamiliar one. I was accompanying a friend to a visit to her Grandparent’s home after years. To reach Thiruvalla, we had no train reservations. We knew the train number, its name and the time it would leave Bangalore City Station. So we found in on a platform and hopped on to the last compartment- the unreserved one, for women only. It was already full as we hesitantly got in to it. We were possibly very lucky to find a little space next to the door. So we kept our bags and sat on them as I refused to put my ‘Bob Marley- One Love’ spreadsheet on the floor and we had conveniently forgotten to carry newspapers. For a compartment that has a capacity of max 60 people, under normal circumstances, this one had more than double the number of people in it. An old woman sat next to us, embarking a 15 hour plus journey to Kanyakumari sitting next to the wash basin. As the journey progressed, our irritation grew. It was a fight for space. Every inch counted. You find it, you st...
Take a walk by the side by lanes without remembering why you have to remain outdoors for some time. And it will not disappoint you. The first thing that anyone visiting Pondicherry should do is to walk down to the beach. If you are coming from the bus stand, head absolutely straight down to the beach road that ends in clear blue skies flanked by clear blue water. There are a few reasons for it. Firstly, the tourism office is housed in a small building there and they provide you not just with cold water and fan, a much needed updated map of the city and the best free guidance regarding anything you might need for your stay. Second, when one takes that walk, from say the State bus stand towards the beach, the architecture and roads change swiftly and make you feel like you have left behind a typical Indian small town and entered a villa in South France. On the by lanes you can catch people lazily sitting around or playing a game of marbles or a traditional game, that gives you a feel of ...
Crisp blue skies with small white clouds. Pleasant sunshine. And cool breeze on your face. Welcome to Bangalore, (oops!) or Bengaluru. The Indian Airlines flight did not disappoint me the moment I saw our ‘delayed’ right next to our flight number. Thanks to one of our team-member’s anxiety, we checked in ‘much’ ahead of time. So then, with a lot of time in hand I walked the place up n down, read the newspaper, walked up and down again and then got chatty with my team mates. Interesting, one of them has a two year old kid, other was originally from Maharashtra but settled in Bengaluru, other was a Japanese Diplomat and another was standing in the Mc Donald’s food line. Our supervisor, a young enthusiast, super planner was also really pleasant and chatty. In the two hour flight we were served small kachoris with spicy curry and my American-Chinese friend refused to even try it!! Small hitch at the airport, she lost her luggage. It was strange that she had kept her backpack as her handbag...