O Calcutta!

We just got back from a short trip to Kolkata and I have a number of tales to tell... Kolkata is a place which has been so oft written about that everything you write is almost bound to be passe. However, at the same time, it is also a place that lends itself to new discoveries everytime you visit it. This time my visit to the city of joy was a bonus... Sanjib was part of one of the company golf teams for the Merchant cup golf in the city and spouses got to go along...what fun! The weather, unlike every other time, was very pleasant.

As soon as we landed and checked into our hotel (that's HHI, or Hotel Hindustan International), Sanjib went off to 'check the course' and Arjun and I went off to check Oxford book store. It is not easy shopping with a 2.5-year-old, especially when you are looking for books. We ended up getting 4 books for him and none for me! I had a couple of other things that i had to do in Cal...one was visit Kalighat, which I did very early one morning. The roads were clear, people were jogging and near the temple, flower sellers were beginning to spread out their ware...It was beautiful. Kalighat is a Shakti pith, where a part of the body of Sati, cut off by Vishnu's disc, fell. The image of the goddess is so powerful that the first time I saw it I almost got a shock!

The second thing on my agenda was to buy some handicrafts. I usually visit Swabhumi for this (Swabhumi is something similar to Dilli Haat in New Delhi, a crafts 'centre' where you find a number of local and traditional craftsmen under one roof along with food), however this time I saw an adevrtisment for a place called 'Sasha' and decided to visit it. It was a nice place in Free School St. but I expected a lot more crafts from Bengal. Instead what i found was crafts from across the country. Unlike Swabhumi where I could pick up a lot of lovely jewellery and terracotta goods for very low prices, here the choice was not much and i also found the prices slightly high.

Now comes the fun part...food! I love eating out whenever we visit some place and usually build up some favourites places to visit everytime. However this time, there was a change int his as well. Apart from breakfast, which was on the house, one meal in a day (either lunch or dinner) was given by the hotel. We thus had beautiful five-star twice a day and had either lunch or dinner outside. Sanjib was in the mood for Bengali food and we discovered two lovely Bengali restaurants. The first is Kewpie's (2, Elgin Lane), opposite Forum. This is a beautiful quaint resturant with a wonderful owner. The second is Prince, in Free School st. The place is exactly like its name, the Bengali equivalent of a Punjabi dhaba, with plates slammed down in front of you and dal spilling from the bowls, but the food...it was absolutely tasty and hot and exactly what you would get in a Bengali home.

There are a couple of things I learnt ont his trip: If you are travelling with a child, and staying at a five star, buy (from outside, of course)and keep the following things handy: A packet of bread, a packet of milk, a jar of cheese spread and some jam. Arjun's been travelling with me ever since he was four months old and I always carry his food with me. This time, since it was a short trip, (I gave it a miss) and somehow Arjun really did not enjoy his food, delicious though it was. A cheese sandwich is something that I always fall back on in times like this and the HHI cheese sandwiches (three slices of bread with two cheese slices between them) cost me Rs 350 each!!! Internet too is very expensive for someone like me who's used to getting it at so much less: it was Rs 95 for half an hour! I also missed all the evening functions at RCGC (the Royal Calcutta Golf Club- pic on the left) because I felt very guilty about spending so much money on baby sitters (Rs 1000 per hour!) ...

Sanjib's birthday was celebrated en route on the plane with the crew making an anouncement and everybody cheering him as he stood up, red in the face.

Calcutta was a fun trip for us!

View from my window

It's been raining constantly for the past few days and our house looks like it's on an island. There are no tea bushes in front of the house, just paddy fields and these are, at the moment filled with water. As I write this, I can hear the drops of water plink plonking from the roof onto the cemented drain. The plants, thirsting for water a few days ago, are now full to the brim. It should be gloomy as the sun's away but it's strangely not. There's a calm peace and coziness all around, reminding me of cold winter days...

Arjun gets a haircut

The best thing about a sunday in a tea garden is that it is truly a sunday! The day, unlike other days, starts late and I get to see my husband in the morning! Before he goes off for golf, that is...but that's another story! Today it was haircut day. The garden 'thakur' came over with his pair of scissors and waited for 'Mistri Saheb' and Son. This was the second time Arjun was getting a haircut from Thakur...the first was a month after he was born when just a few strands were cut off as a gesture. Earlier, last November, Arjun had a mundan done at Tirupati in andhra Pradesh. Sanjib also had to get one done to stop Arjun from crying!