Kolkata Trip 2013 - Tuesday, October 8th

Today, we were going to get an internet connection for my mother-in-law.  They earlier had a desktop computer with internet connection, but after electrical fluctuations caused a premature death for their modem while old age accounted for the desktop, they had not bothered to upgrade, i.e., until now.  Ranji had bought a tablet, a Viewsonic, from Singapore after getting inspired following a Skype session we had with my brother there.  She got him to buy one and send it through to India via my parents who had gone visiting to Singapore.  With the tablet in hand, we went to Tollygunge Phadi to take a Vodafone connection. Before starting from Behala, we went to see our first pandal of this year’s puja.  Sreesanga Club, which is very close to Ranji’s house, always has Nava Durga (nine forms of Durga) in their pandal.  While the pandal as such was not very attractive, the idols were very beautiful.

Being technologically challenged, we had assumed that the tablet would only require a wireless dongle.  Only upon reaching the Vodafone store did we realize that this particular tablet (or was it Android OS, I’m not sure) did not support a wireless dongle.  Getting this knowledge, in typical Kolkatan fashion, took a couple of hours and only after we had taken the connection.  Now, we had no option but to convert that to a phone connection to ensure it did not go to waste.  By the time we finished at the Vodafone store, it was past 3.  Hunger, in addition, to the crowd, was not helping in improving my mood.

While Ranji’s mom and I came back home, Ranji went to meet another of her school friends, Shibani.  We picked up a pot of mishti doi (sweet curd) on our way back home. I managed to clean up half of it in one sitting and could have gone on, but the shift of waist size from 30 to 32 was on the back of my mind.  A couple of hours later, when she was on her way back, Ranji called us and told that the crowds at Nutan Dal, an award-winning puja in the previous years, was relatively free and we could go visit the pandal.  My mother-in-law and I got ready, and once Ranji was back, the three of us were off again.  Nutan Dal was slightly disappointing, though.  It was the same old village-based theme at their pandal.  While the finished product was good, it was the lack of variety that was disappointing.

After Nutan Dal, it was back to the same old shopping.  If Gariahat had seemed terrible yesterday, Behala was impossible today.  The crowd seemed to have increased with people hurrying to finish their puja shopping.  I quickly removed the cloak of civility as I too enthusiastically joined the pushing and shoving.  Not being well-versed in the art of shopping, my amateurish attempts were quickly overwhelmed by the more experienced Bangla babus and didibhais.  Soon, I begged Ranji and her mom to return back because I just about had enough of sweaty bodies pushing me in the four directions.  Taking pity at my condition, they decided to return back home.