Kolkata'r Korcha

Received this awesome forwarded email from a friend today, regarding some very unique facts on Calcutta.
Sharing it with you.

Calcutta Tip #8 - People call you DADA irrespective of whether you are 16 or 65 years old

Calcutta Tip #29 - KHUCHRO is precious.

Calcutta Tip #47 - Working in Saltlake Sector 5 is not cool anymore. Ajkal okhane shobai kaj kore.

Calcutta Tip #40 - Holi maru ra khele, we play DOL.

Calcutta Tip #26 - Only Calcuttans celebrate Valentine's day twice every year - Valentine's day and Saraswati Puja.

Calcutta Tip #11 - You come across a Bong anywhere in India, ask him where he is from and he will say Calcutta (irrespective of whichever part of West Bengal he is from or however much he dislikes Calcutta) and hence Calcutta to California, there is a Calcuttan everywhere :)

Calcutta Tip #17 - The first bangla a non-bong learns..."Ami tomake bhalobashi"

Calcutta Tip #20 - Hotel = Restaurant :)

Calcutta Tip #48 - Buying books is not important but visiting the BOIMELA is compulsory.

Calcutta Tip #3 - New Market is not new anymore.

Calcutta Tip #31 - Not giving fau phuchka is a punishable offense.

Calcutta Tip #7 - If you don't find a good place for walking, go to South City Mall.

Calcutta Tip #14 - Train passengers' biggest nightmare..."Bonga Local".

Calcutta Tip #12 - What do we hope to happen when KKR plays? RAIN!!!

Calcutta Tip #46 - In the city of "Cholchhe na Cholbe na", 3 te jinish shob shomoy chole
1. Bus
2. Train
and
3. Football

Calcutta Tip #32 - Whether it is Durgapuja, Diwali, Christmas, Eid ul-Ftr or whatever, people of Kolkata celebrate every one of them with same enthusiasm. (In fact there is hardly any festival we do not celebrate. We have plenty of time).

Calcutta Tip #30 - Never take panga with Auto drivers in Kolkata while driving. Even Michael Schumacher wouldn't be able to beat them.

Calcutta Tip #42 - After visiting the major cities in India, a Kolkatan comes back feeling "Kolkatar moton jayega hoy na"

Calcutta Tip #45 - Argument between North Kolkata aar South Kolkata is bhoyonkor and unending;
Kintu petpuja (Bhim Nag, Nakur, Coffee House), Durgapuja (Bagbajar, Kumortuli, Jodhpur Park, Bosepukur), Shopping aar Multiplex (Forum, South City) er kotha uthle amra shobai bhai bhai.

Calcutta Tip #21 - Whenever conductor asks for ticket, common answer is "Dichhi Dichhi..."

Calcutta Tip #9 - Origin of metro rail in India is the oldest in country now. So metro niye kono kotha hobe na.

Calcutta Tip #5 - Everyone has a friend who is from South Point.

Calcutta Tip #49 - The city where most discussions end up with variety, price and quality of "MAACHH"

Calcutta Tip #12 - If you wonder where the bus stop is, don't worry, your hand is the best stop sign.

Calcutta Tip #27 - Keep yourself at a distance if you hear an argument related to "MOHUNBAGAN vs EASTBENGAL"... Je kono muhurte chor-thappod pore jete pare.

Calcutta Tip #24 - If you don't find a book in College Street, probably it does not exist.

Calcutta Tip #18 - It is not Tollygunge. It's Taligaunge.

Calcutta Tip #51 - Most fights end with "Aay amader padaye, dekhe nebo"

Calcutta Tip #25 - The word is Pujor Marketing, not Shopping.

Calcutta Tip  #14 - Bandh=Family Time

Calcutta Tip #4 - Taxi meters run faster than vehicles here.

Calcutta Tip #whatever - Are shunish ni? Ora to Love marriage kore biye korechhe. OR, Ami roj shokale morning walk e jai OR Aaj raater Dinner ta kintu hebby holo.

Brighten the corner....where you are...

Is there any place on the Earth that does not have life?
Dry or Wet, Ocean or Sea, Desert or Marsh, Mountains or Beaches, Light or Dark...Anywhere?
I guess, No.

Lifeforms have an uncanny knack of surviving all odds. They adapt and evolve but never ceases to live.
Water, Temperature, stable weather conditions are probably some of the primal features that decide how easy or difficult survival would be.

Where temperatures are very high, the leaves change to thorns and yet bloom during Spring. Never heard the shrunken-leaves complaining nor seen hues in the petals compromised.

In great depths of the ocean, where light of the mighty Sun doesn't penetrate, creatures are capable of Bioluminescence - producing their own light. Is there a research that goes like - "A study on the unhappiness quotient of certain light-producing deep sea creatures"

Were "We", (supposedly the superior-most creatures) born on Mars?

 Brighten the corner....where you are

I wish...

I could....
Go into the mountains for a loooong vacation.
Write a book.
Learn to play the Guitar
Go on an uncontrolled shopping spree
Possess Fifty shoes
Speak French fluently
Also cross The English Channel
Drive a Convertible
Have a Kitchen Garden
Live amidst a green garden
Have an open terrace/ balcony
A house with wooden floors
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Please don't wake me up.

Nov 2017:
I have gone on a number of unrestrained shopping sprees, right before my wedding.
I live in a house with beautifully polished wooden floors :)
Gone for uncountable vacations, over a period of three years, but vacations never seem enough
             

Spring back!!

So what if Speechless’s readers/ subscribers are deserting her! So what if her creator herself had almost abandoned her! It is The Season and The Reason to Spring Back…
We have not yet been able to reach a place on earth or in life (or anywhere else) that is devoid of pain and sorrow but like there are some blessed people amongst us who are so gifted to be happy and share happiness around (and we thought Angels are fictitious), there is also the Season that brings with itself manifold causes for us to stop and smile even in the deepest of vacuums (or its opposite, whatever that is).

I had thought I would never again be able to write, observe actually, because the writing inspiration is evoked by the senses of sight and the power of thought. I am too preoccupied (read, I am getting old).
When we retire for the night, we plan for the next morning, when we are travelling to our offices/ schools, we are thinking about the work or studies and that is how we end up missing the subtle hints life has to offer us in the form of awesome de-vacuuming of that emptiness within us.

I travel to my office sometimes by means of a frustratingly crowded bus, within which, if one is very lucky, gets to stand by the side of a window and can have a decent view of the exterior. However, the roads of Kolkata, especially en-route to Saltlake Sector Five is not very picturesque at this time. Most of the roads are burdened by construction works, of Flyovers, of Metro railways (for those of you who did not know, Kolkata had a Metro since 1984, this is just the extension of it into other parts of the city – which means when I was admitted in school, the construction of the Metro disrupted my going and coming to and from school and now that I am working, it still makes me leave home half an hour early to make sure I make it on time. The positive you ask? Well, the signboards read – Today’s pain, Tomorrow’s Gain. (Feels like – Your Pain, Your Children’s Gain)). One such deadliest bottle-neck is the crossing near ITC Sonar Bangla. People shut their windows when they reach that spot. Yesterday was no different. The lucky seated person, whose window I was standing next to decided to do the same, but I managed to see something through that which made me write down this piece of literature.

The grounds around ITC Shonar Bangla (a five star hotel) is also having some construction work and is extremely dusty. Amidst all that pollution, there stands a tree within the grounds, totally devoid of leaves, but completely covered with flowers – light pink flowers, a mismatch, a contrast to its surroundings. I wanted to shout and show the others – LOOK! But I was numbed myself.

This was yesterday.

Today, on my way to office, I consciously looked again. This time I saw two more such trees, beautifully laden with those light pink flowers, just like a newly wedded bride, leaning gracefully in her fineries, all in and around the same hotel and another far away from it on my way back home tonight. That is when I decided I had to blog about his.

Someone once told me – Life is like how you see it. Try seeing it as a glass that is half full (intentions right may be but a very old example).

But life IS how we see it, provided we do not stop seeing it. 

When we search for sorrow, we find them all around. When we look for happiness, interestingly we find them scattered like tiny specs of precious diamonds. 
Each of them says, "I am right here, don't give up on me and keep looking"

Reason and Season to Spring Back.


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Anondo Boshonto shomagomey