Bread Omelette at Howrah Station! Yum!

As I walked towards the terminal 2 of Howrah station, I saw a series of food stalls alongside the road. In the pleasant weather of winter morning, it was a delight to see them ... the stacks of breads (pavs) and eggs, kadhais, steam coming out of it, busy cooks preparing bread omelets really fast and the crowd gathered around the stalls. I stopped at one stall and asked for a plate of bread-omelette. Most of the people were busy eating the omelets, or were staring at the kadhai ... may be salivating at the bread omelets, or staring into the blank and lost in the steam, or contemplating for the day ahead, or simply because they were not fully awake yet! When I got my plate, it was like heaven, I relished every bite of it! It was the perfect food for the cool weather and hungry morning :) 

As I paid him and walked ahead, I thanked Kolkata for the sweet farewell.

Return from Kolkata: the gigantic Howrah Bridge

The bus reached Howrah in approximately half-an-hour. In about the same time, the gigantic Howrah bridge loomed into the picture. It was huge! As the bus passed by the bridge, it looked steely cold... It was huge, majestic, awe inspiring, but not beautiful or charming ... I felt it lost its charm over years with dust, pollution, noise and time. It created an image of an old man in my mind. Face and body full of wrinkles, ... wearing a faded smile, as if these many years of living taught him that life is nothing but pain and hardship. But certainly a tough and stout posture. Still he appeared strong, standing straight, with head up, a straight back, strong limbs, broad torso ... wearing suit ... exuding luxury, status and strength... As if his picture will make you instantly think that he must be a charming young man in his haydays ! :P

I did not feel happy or excited to see the bridge. I walked along dragging my trolley bag while cooking up this analogy in my mind :P

Howrah Station with the Howrah Bridge at the backdrop

Return from Kolkata: the chivalrous bus conductor!

I had to catch the morning train at 7.30 AM back to Brahmapur. I left the beautiful campus of ISI, Kolkata at around 5.30 AM. It was still dark, but not so cold. My friend Vidyadhar was generous to drop me at the gate, and help me with the buses. I got into a small bus that was going to Howrah station. As I got in, I felt the state of everyone and hesitated. The conductor was an old man, but was a gentleman... He took my trolly bag from my hand, secured it through a chain and directed me to a seat. I wish young guys learn that chivalry from that old man! As I looked around for a seat, I found small amount of space in the last row. I hesitantly went along with the silent gaze of everyone and squeezed myself in that little space. The bus was silent, not much of chit-chatting could be heard... May be it was the effect of cool winter morning! I would raise myself a little to check if my bag is safe in the front every now and then... When we reached Howrah, I went ahead to unchain my bag, but the old conductor did not let me do so. He unchained the bag, indicated me to get down first, brought down the bag for me! He was too old to lift the bag, and I was perfectly capable of lifting my luggage, and both of us were aware of that! Still he cared to do that just because I was a lady! I said a heartfelt thank you and walked towards the station. As I said thanks, I felt a bit strange. I felt the word 'thank you' should not exist. It dilutes the gratitude we want to express...

The beautiful ponds in ISI Kolkata

One of the Lotus Ponds @ISI, Kolkata

  I reached ISI, Kolkata early morning. After getting freshened up in the hostel allocated to me, I and my friends started walking towards the venue. The campus was a small and cozy one. It gave a feel of a beautiful village in winter morning... We had to cross a subway to reach over the other part of the campus. As we kept walking on the small walk-ways, we saw many ponds... full of wild water plants and wild flowers... I was excited! I could see the lotuses so close! I went near them, and saw the beautiful shining lotuses, their leaves and the lotus-buds. For the first time I could see them so close! They reminded why in ancient Indian texts everything beautiful was always compared with lotus! 

As I tried to move closer I saw a tiny little snake, striped in green

ISI Kolkata Campus

and brown, was lying near the steps, and bathing in the morning sun! It quickly slithered into the water hearing my foot-step...

I saw many more wild flowers... wanted to stop by each of them, but we were getting late... so moved quickly to the conference venue..

And I knew, my day was going to be awesome!

An encounter with the taxi driver of Kolkata

I got down in the airport. As advised by my friend Kaustuv here, who is from Kolkata, I went to the prepaid counter, booked a taxi for myself, followed the directions to reach the taxi stand. There as I got the taxi assigned to me, to thin men approached me. I was this woman holding a big laptop bag and a trolly bag alone. I must be looking like a easy shikar to them. Being used to the behavior of people at Chennai and Hyderabad, I thought one is the taxi driver and the other is the helper. The guy who looked like the helper snatched my bag, and placed it in the taxi, I said thanks and got into the taxi. As soon as I entered, he asked me money for chai pani !! I was like why??? And he would not move! I then told myself,'Girl! Don't forget! You are in Kolkata!' and paid him some money...

I was told that there are two ways to ISI, my destination, one through DumDum, a long, slow route through the old city with narrow streets, the other one through an expressway, faster, shorter and quicker... I made it clear to him to go through that way.

But suddenly I see, we are entering a really narrow street! I was confused.. When I confronted him, he said, he was entering into DumDum! I was like hell! And after that, the kind of arguments he put forth to defend himself why he wants to go through that way were amazing!!! Even while writing them down, I am boiling! x-( A few of them are, "Because people like you are unwilling to pay little bit extra money, we are not getting to fill our stomach!", "Expressway is longer one, and is longer by some 600 meters than DumDum route, and because of which, I will charge 50 Rupees extra if you demand any further to take that way!".... And he was unwilling to stop and turn back!  In the end, I had to say firmly, " Take through the expressway and I am not going to pay a single paisa extra to you for anything." And finally, he somehow managed to get himself out of those streets and join the expressway...

I was astonished! How my morning turned out to be, how I could have lost in the busy traffic of Dumdum and how was about to miss my conference, how miserable I was feeling while arguing with that old taxi driver and how irritating the city of Kolkata is.. I was resentful on this bad treatment of the city to me ... and at the same time, was slightly excited for being able to successfully argue with a Bengali Taxi Driver in Kolkata!