The Mexican lady and my Woow moment

It was 18th of January, 2015. A Sunday afternoon. I joined the Urban Sketcher Boston's meetup at Prudential Tower in Boston.  It was my first time in the meetup. Although the meetup was scheduled to be from 2PM to 4PM, I decided to stay back and finish my sketch. As I was sitting and trying to finish my work in the bustling cafeteria, an old lady came to sit on the nearby table. She was flamboyantly dressed... with a copper sulphate blue colored long flowy gown, a metallic belt that was intricately designed, and a furry coat. Even with eccentric clothing of American people around, she looked little out-of-place. I took a moment to notice her and went back to my work. But that would not happen. She insisted to shift my table to make space for her cart. I did that courteously and tried to continue my sketch. Then, she came close to me and started saying something. It took me a while to know that she was not speaking English.  I tried telling her that I do not understand her by using signs. She did not appear baffled, ashamed, or confused. She was confident, unaffected by the fact that she is in a place where people do not understand her. Then she indicated that she needed my help in unbuttoning her belt, which she could not. I happily did that for her. But she would not go. She was standing there, pretty close to me by American standards, adjusting her cloth. I became nervous and told to myself, "If she does not move away in another minute, I am going to get up, pack my stuff and run!". But then she moved away, found a chair for herself and sat down. I sighed with relief...

Then a waitress came to her and talked to her for sometime. The waitress looked Mexican, so I guessed, may be this lady is from Mexico and that waitress is her daughter. As the old lady enjoyed her food, I took my time to complete my sketch. I finished my work around 5 PM and got up to pack up. Then I signalled her that I am going to leave, and asked her where is she from, and said that I can only speak English.... atleast that's what I was trying to express ... then she said lot of things, of which I could understand the word "Mexico". Then I waved my hand to say bye... She gave a big smile and blew a flying kiss for me before waving her hands again!

That... was my woow moment,  that I took with me for the rest of the evening :)

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!

the dacoits in the disguise of protectors x-(

The other day, me and my friend went to the market nearby at Indira Nagar for regular shopping... It was evening time... around 7 or 8. We saw one thelawala with roasted corns, and stopped there to relish a few pieces of roasted corns. As we were waiting for the thelawala to prepare the corn, a small truck came, with two traffic policemen in it. One was inside it, and the other was outside on the truck. They stopped by, scolded the thelawala to move away from the road, although he was at a safe distance from the road. Then they kept saying something to him and discussing something among themselves. We were not able to understand much. It appeared to me as if they were not so strict and friendly ones who will just ask him to move and drive away... Then they asked him about the corns... From their conversation in Telugu, I guessed, may be they stopped by to buy some corns... or may be will take a few corns as bribe. Then within a flash, the police who was outside, picked at least 10 pieces of corns and drove away... The poor thelawala was requesting not to take that much, but they did not listen... All this happened in just seconds... All the people around there gathered there suddenly... but they could not do anything... we could not do anything... And the poor fellow came back to cater to us and a few customers waiting for the roasted corns... We asked him, "Does he happen always?" He said, "Yes, all the time... " It was tough to watch his sad face.  It was a shock to me... Rest of the time, I ate my corn silently, lost in thought... So many thoughts were filling my mind... And I was eating my corn as vigorously as I could...  

Those were the people who were supposed to protect the people on road. They did that to that poor guy! They were no less than the dadas that I watched in 80's hindi movies. And this happened in our very own Indira Nagar!!! How can we trust poilce, then? They were worse than those gundas! They did not do all this for any discipline! In that case, they would have first thrashed the cars that were parked in random manner blocking the road and making it difficult for the walkers... They did not.. they wanted an easy target.. some one who can not protest! Its true then... all those adages, "only the fittest can survive", "Jor jaara mulak taara" are so true... n in such cruel ways!! 

What will happen to the poor fellow? He must be finding it difficult already to support his family with the meager income by selling roasted corns... How does he handle it everyday? Why does not he voice against them? How can he? When he is the only one to shout or beg! How can he face the snatchers who are backed by the huge bureaucracy behind them! And when the people around him choose to be mute watchers!

The fact that everyone gathered suddenly when they were snatching, and in a minute everyone got busy in their own business, reminded me one of the stories by Ruskin Bond, where, the tiger hides and targets one deer while all the deers are grazing merrily. He suddenly jumps onto one of the deers and all the others flee. The deer is dead and tiger walks away with his food. Then within no time, all the deers come back and graze as if nothing had happened... How are we different as human race from those deers! Just as we have both carnivores and herbivores amongst us!  But then, I was also among those mute spectactors! I too could not do anything! Why? The question kept nagging me! I could have taken a photo of their vehicle... I could have shouted... All those men could have shouted in unison! What could have those two policemen do if all the janta would have shouted! Nothing! But noone did! Why? since we were trying to protect ourselves at the cost of those few pieces of corn? or... we are resigned that such things happen and we have to face the bitter reality? or the mentaility of "It is his problem.. Thank God! not mine...", or the shock and indecisiveness of what should be done? or the lack of awareness and preparedness? that we don't know what should be done in such a situation? May be all of these? 

My thoughts floated into imagining all horrible incidents that happened to me in the past and to the others... the horrible incidents that get highlighted in media everyday and move into oblivion every day!!  What if a girl would have been groped? What if a person would have been looted? What if a woman was raped? What if someone was chain-snatched? What if someone would have been stabbed or shot at? Of course, this incidence of stealing the corns was not  as horrible as I was imagining... But then, the concerns it arose was same... I, as a person, need to be more courageous .. we as people need to be less dumb... We need to act smart.. We need to be prepared.. We should know that we need to act and act smartly in such situations instead of standing as mute spectators....

I came back to my hostel with the same thoughts, but after a while, forgot it and got occupied in my other activities... in the same way those deers did.