Kolkata Trip 2013 - Monday, October 7th

Monday was the day we were going to embark on our shopping.  The morning was spent in packing Ranji’s dad off to his office.  After that, around 11, the remaining three of us got ready to go to Gariahat.  We got a taxi, gave him our destination, and assumed he would know the easiest route to get there.  I’d like to believe that he was ignorant about the best route because if he was attempting to milk us for some extra rupees, he did pay a price for it because we got caught in some terrible traffic snarls.  By the time we reached Gariahat, my mood was borderline irritable.

If the ride through vehicular traffic was irritating, the walk through human traffic was harrowing.  Street hawkers in Gariahat have occupied most of the footpath, making walking through them a challenge.  Add to that the throng of Puja shoppers and I was beginning to wonder if I made the right decision to accompany the ladies. Ranji was enjoying the pushing and shoving but she kept cribbing about the Kolkata heat.  I was happy to bear the heat and humidity only if the others in Gariahat would just stop banging into me.

After powering our way through the army of shoppers, we finally reached our destination – RMCA Basak.  Even I love coming to Basak because it has an old-world charm about it.  They haven’t expanded to a chain yet and treat their customers as special, not to mention having some of the best Bengal Cotton sarees I have seen.  We were there for almost a couple of hours, picking up 5-6 sarees.  We then moved on to Pantaloons to make use of a gift voucher my mother-in-law had.  After converting the gift voucher into a pair of trousers for me, we moved on.  This was also the first time I had moved on from a waist size of 30 to 32 (inches) in over a decade.  I have made a mental note to join a gym as soon as we are back in Bangalore.

Shopping done, we went to Bedouin Restaurant for our lunch.  Coming from Bangalore, one is surprised with the décor, or the lack of it, in most of the Kolkatan restaurants.  That, though, was made up by the quantity.  Between the three of us, we were able to only finish one bowl of fried rice.  We got them to parcel us the remaining food and rushed out, hoping to catch a taxi soon because it had begun drizzling.

Kolkata is not a very clean city.  It feels old, the buildings look grimy, the roadsides are dirty, the dustbins are overflowing, there is betel juice stains everywhere.  All of that becomes worse when it rains.  This time, I am getting to experience the Kolkata rains for the first time.  Despite it not being seasonal showers, the intensity is definitely there.  The rains reminded me of the Kerala rains I experienced during my childhood.  Here, though, the rain does not make the land look cleaner; it makes it look dirtier.

Once we reached Behala, we let Ranji’s mom go back home while we went to visit one of Ranji’s close friend, Monia.  Ranji and Monia have been friends from their school days, and the years and the distance has not really affected their friendship.  They constantly keep in touch and stay abreast of the happenings in each other’s lives.  We were seeing Monia’s kid, though, for the first time.  She took about 10 minutes to get used to the new faces but soon started playing with us.  When we left their house a couple of hours later, she seemed very sad to see us go.  We did set up yet another meeting with Monia because we hadn’t had enough of playing with her kid.

By the time we reached back, the only thing in our mind was bed.  Ranji’s mom, on the other hand,  is indefatigable.  After reaching her house and dumping our shopping, she had gone back to the market to get some fresh produce to cook delicious curries for her daughter and son-in-law.  It is a tragedy that neither her daughter nor her son-in-law is gastronomically inclined.  Despite that, Ranji’s mom never tires of cooking different items for both of us when we come visiting.  Tired in spirit and with a bloated stomach, we both went to sleep.