My affinity with the City of (Kill)Joy

Its been a long standing association. Not that I've enjoyed any of it but it has been there for so long that I can't ignore it. The problem starts with the fact that mommy dear has been born and brought up in and around the city (she's not a Bengali!). There were days I was dragged along to my grandparents' place every summer vacation. So while other kids looked forward to enjoying their vacations, I actually dreaded them. I absolutely hated the dirt, pollution, weather, crowd, local trains, and what not(I still do!!). The days mommy dear decided to take me along as she went for shopping in Bada Bazaar (or Sada Bazaar as I used to call it, for it really is one of the dirtiest places known to mankind, or me at least) are some of the worst days of my life. True, I liked places like Nehru Children's Museum, Science City, Alipore Zoo, Birla Planetarium and ride in a Metro (it was one of the few places having escalators back then!). But they could hardly make up for the discomfort I had to undergo to reach them. Imagine a 5 year old being crushed on all sides while holding his mommy's hands and trying to get on a local train. Man, that was agony at its worst.

Then I grew up and mommy dear began to realize it was no use trying to convince me to go to the City of Joy anymore. I got good support on this front from daddy dear as well who shares my detest for his "sasural". He has been to the place only twice in 25 years. Both times he has fallen prey to extreme humidity and pollution resulting in his usually subdued asthma to resurface and ruin the entire trip. So, mommy dear seemed to be the only one protesting as I refused to go along with her. So it had been a nice and quiet 5 years or so without a visit to Kolkata.

And then, I got this goddamned job in this goddamned company which has its corporate headquarters in this goddamned city. So began my trips again. And at alarmingly regular intervals!! As much as I wanted to stay a million miles away, I had to come back to the place again and again. I've visited the city more in the last one year than I had over the past 22 years. Thank goodness the company guest house is in Salt Lake which seems  like a nicer and quieter and less polluted place than the rest of Kolkata which is more or less a complete mess. Here's more...until yesterday I was under the impression that my office was about 15 km. from the guest house because it always took almost an hour  to reach there no matter what the mode of transport was. But that was before today when I glanced on the meter in the taxi as  I was paying the driver after reaching office. And boy was I amazed...it read 7.0 km...I thought something must be wrong so I asked the driver. He conformed that the reading was indeed true. I guess you can imagine my shock as I'm used to reaching office in Delhi from home in Noida in about 35 min. during peak hours and its a good 25km. away. Need I say more??

The thing that keeps me going is the fact that I have a few friends who always spare some time to hang out and I don't really get bored after office and on weekends. I also have a lot of relatives here (remember its my "nanihal") so I can go to their place whenever I want have some good old daal chawal and alu gobhi...

Will continue narrating my other experiences in the city in the coming days. And by the way, I'm scheduled to be back to Noida this Sunday but I might just stay back for Haman's wedding on the 2nd of December. Hope to see you all then...