Kolkata - and more

Recently, my wife and I visited Kolkata to take a break. We went to Shantiniketan and the Sunderban mangrove forest as well. I have been mulling over writing one of my long blog posts or using a few pictures and long captions to describe the trip. Today (05-Dec-2023), I decided that the second option is better. So here are some photographs without people and disproportionately long text to go with them as captions! 

Notes: I have avoided mentioning names. The photographs are NOT in chronological order.

 

This sunset in the Sunderbans was a highlight of the trip. The sun and the clouds toyed with us on the horizon. Sometimes, slivers of the sun appeared, a milder shade of orange, sometimes the clouds covered it, obscuring its brilliance partially. The effect of the light on the water was superb. My photographic skills and my smartphone do not do justice to the actual light and hues of gold, pink and orange that we saw in the other pictures that I took. There is something spiritual about sunsets and natural beauty. Finally, the sun appeared completely as it set, a subdued version of pink seen here. The pink looked more vivid in reality.

 

 

The green spaces in Shantiniketan are refreshing and calming. After a 4.5 hours drive, the Vishwabharati campus was a treat for the eyes. It was Guru Rabindranath Tagore's father Debendranath Tagore who established Shantiniketan, as explained in https://www.santiniketan.com/culture/history-of-santiniketan/. Shantiniketan has exhibits of its illustrious teachers and students like Tagore himself and Nandalal Bose.

 

 

Rabindranath Bhavan is a sprawling mansion that houses describes Tagore's life, background and contribution. The ground floor is dedicated to "Gitanjali", the collection of poems that was the basis for Tagore's Nobel Prize. https://www.thebetterindia.com/66627/santiniketan-rabindranath-tagore-bengal/ describes the attractions of Shantiniketan. The Tagore family has contributed a lot to education and culture, discussed in https://www.santiniketan.com/the-tagore-family/.

 

 

We travelled around the Sunderban in a boat for two days. The boat moved slowly, allowing us to admire the mangrove forest, the mostly still water and the occasional birds. The sunlight gleamed like silver on the water. The phrase "Streams full of stars like skies at night" came to my mind. It was very relaxing and peaceful. https://www.poetry.com/poem/40653/leisure shows the poem which is the source of the phrase. The need for leisure is described well in the poem. What is not often appreciated is its importance in improving productivity. As https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/10/charles-darwin-daily-routine/ discusses, even a scientist like Charles Darwin kept his work-life balance. Occasionally, it helps to just experience nature with its calm to recharge and in the Sunderban my wife and I did that.

 

 

Everywhere in West Bengal, no matter how humble the house is, the lights were a treat for the eyes. In the village of Dayapur in the Sunderbans, the village fair showed us these lights as seen here. The temple and the fountain were well lit. Even a boat anchored in the middle of a pond nearby was strikingly illuminated.

 

My brother recommended that we roam about College Street (NOTE: This correction was provided by my cousin, updated on 12-Dec-2023) Road in Kolkata. While searching for a restaurant to eat lunch, we walked on College Road, a busy road very similar to Avenue Road in Bengaluru with tram tracks on it. All types of academic books were seen. On one of its cross roads is the Indian Coffee House, shown here. We ate sandwiches, fried rice and cutlets, finishing the meal with cups of coffee. I remembered how India Coffee House on M. G. Road in Bengaluru had a similar look and feel. What was not so good was the strong smell of cigarette smoke. The "adda" atmosphere of students mingling and discussing topics, venerable gentlemen discussing unusual topics and the odd person reading and keeping a cup of coffee were all seen. Right next to our table, there were three men discussing a book on Mughal courtiers that had just been released (I may be wrong about this!).

 

 

One unusual feature about the mangrove trees is that the roots emerge out of the water. The guide who joined us on the second day said that there are different types of roots: breathing roots and silt roots. Due to the saline water, the roots emerge out of it searching for oxygen, looking rather like shoots of a plant rather than roots! https://www.fao.org/3/ai387e/AI387E06.htm has more information.

 

 

The highlight of the Sundarban forest is the Royal Bengal tiger which we did not spot. Considering that the Sundarbans are around 6000 sq. km in India and there are around 125 tigers, I would say that we would have had to be very, very fortunate to spot a tiger particularly during daytime! Still, we did get to see red crabs, monitor lizards, spotted deer, a grey headed fishing eagle and this Brahminy kite.

 

 

Of course, during the two days on the boat, we did see a lot of the mangrove forests of the Sundarban! The fencing is to restrict the tiger. https://www.wti.org.in/news/fences-help-keep-tigers-out-of-villages-in-sundarbans/ reports that this it helps in deterring tigers from moving into human inhabited areas.

 

 

In my bachelor days, a friend and I used to roam around M. G. Road and Church street in Bengaluru. The energy and vibe of such roads was a joy for us. Around Christmas time in the evening, I often told him: "See the lights, my friend, look at the lights". He would remark that I was a fool to talk about the lights. Well, I do like lights - and the lights on Park Street in Kolkata pleased me no end! I felt like I was in a fairyland! Perhaps this is why Kolkata is called the "City of Joy"! These lights (probably because of Deepavali?) were visible not just in Park street or Kolkata but across West Bengal. 

 

 

Victoria memorial contains narratives of Indian revolutionaries who contributed immensely to the freedom movement. The audio visual display is a must see for students of history. The memorial is located near the maidan, an area of open space where we saw cricket being played. The cab driver who took us there said that the road was designed for planes to land. I don't know how true that is, but Kolkata was on alert during the second World War. Our cab driver was a man from Munger in Bihar who had worked in UAE and Saudi Arabia and shared his "shaayiri" (poetry) with us once he learned that we are tourists. He quoted couplets that exhorted us to live life and experience it! We could only say "Wah, wah" in agreement. Victoria memorial has a lot of greenery.

 

There are some songs that capture the spirit of the city. "Bombay City" is an energetic song by Remo Fernandes that describes the bustle of Mumbai, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pPlosSE4Bs. When it comes to Bengaluru, "Namma Bengaluru" by Raghu Dixit is one of my favourites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_PHIp0-Ftw shows the video. For Kolkata city, my song would be the song "Aami shotti bolchi" by one of Kolkata's citizen Usha Uthup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWrOxSyv9cA brings out some of the attractions and quirks of the city.

 

Like the song describes, Kolkata is a city of contradictions. We saw luxury and richness in Park Street and its adjoining areas, we also saw crumbling, derelict buildings and taxis there. We rode in metros that linked different ends of the city, we also saw cycle rickshaws and trams around College Road. The luxury offered in Flury's (a restaurant like Koshy's in Bengaluru) contrasts with the chaat on Chowringee lane and the "sondesh" at Rs. 10 or Rs. 15 on the roads! Before we left Kolkata, my wife ate a "roshogulla" (which is "rasgulla" as it is called in West Bengal!) while I indulged in a "mishti doi" in Kolkata, which offered excellent value for money.

 

After landing in Bengaluru at around 7:30 p.m. and stepping out about 30 minutes later, it was my wife who said: "I want to drink coffee!" The hot and strong south Indian filter coffee outside the airport building was welcome to our taste buds, just like the sweets we sampled in Kolkata.

 

Every city has its own pleasures to offer, one just has to know what to pick!